Presidential Transition considerations for Acquisition community
Summary
In this episode of FEDtalk, host Jason Briefel interviews Troy Cribb, Director of Policy at the Partnership for Public Service, about the presidential transition and its impact on the federal and contractor acquisition workforce. They discuss the importance of the acquisition function in government, the preparations agencies are making for the transition, and the key dates and deadlines involved. Cribb shares insights from her experience working in government and at the General Services Administration (GSA), emphasizing the need for comprehensive briefings and education for incoming appointees. The Partnership’s Center for Presidential Transition offers resources and programs to support agencies and appointees during the transition.
Takeaways
The federal and contractor acquisition workforce plays a crucial role in government operations, and its importance should not be overlooked during the presidential transition.
Agencies have been preparing for the transition for months, with senior career officials leading the efforts and coordinating with the Federal Transition Coordinator at GSA.
Briefing materials are being prepared for incoming transition teams, regardless of the election outcome, to provide helpful information and ensure a smooth transition.
The acquisition workforce and industry need to be aware of the transition process and potential shifts in priorities that may impact spending and contracts.
Compliance with laws, regulations, and ethical considerations is essential in federal acquisition to protect against waste, fraud, and abuse.
The Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service offers resources and programs to support agencies and appointees during the transition.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
09:35 Preparing for the Transition
15:24 Key Dates and Deadlines
23:46 Lessons Learned from Working in Government
29:49 The Importance of Comprehensive Briefings
37:16 The Role of the Partnership for Public Service
-
Jason Briefel (00:04.46)
Hello and welcome to Fed Talk. My name is Jason Breifel, Director of Government and Public Affairs at Shaw, Bransford and Roth.
And we are excited today to be hosting our friend Troy Cribb from the Partnership for Public Service, the Director of Policy there, helping us understand and unpack issues around the presidential transition, particularly those that are going to be facing the federal acquisition workforce, both on the government side and on the industry side. Troy has seen this issue from all the angles, up on the hill, inside of the administration, over at the partnership.
And I'm really excited to have her here today for this discussion. Troy, thanks so much for being with me.
Troy Cribb (01:05.274)
Well thank you so much Jason. Jason you are such a good partner in our good government community and I always enjoy working with you whether we're talking transition or talking about strengthening the senior executive service so I'm just really happy to be here today and have this chat with you.
Jason Briefel (01:24.802)
Well, thanks so much, Troy. The feeling's mutual and this is definitely an area that I do not know as much about as some of those others, particularly the federal personnel and human capital topics we talk about here on Fed Talk the most. But given that the government does spend at least $700 billion a year on its acquisition function, it's a huge part of how we get things done. We're going to need help.
from industry and the outside. It's a key part of how government operates. So I'm really thankful for your time here today, including as I work towards an article for the National Contract Management Association Magazine, which is gonna show up later this winter. And as we dive into the conversation, Troy.
Troy Cribb (02:11.63)
good and that's a great organization so well worthwhile for you to be doing something for them.
Jason Briefel (02:18.41)
Yeah, and this is really forcing me to lean in to this area and these issues. And so I appreciate your time and your expertise. on that vein, as we're diving in, I do think it would be helpful, Troy, if you just give folks a little bit of an overview on your career journey. Because as I hinted at, you have been around this issue from different parts, from different vantage points. And I think that gives you a really unique perspective here.
Troy Cribb (02:42.776)
Have a good
Jason Briefel (02:46.036)
and probably have some lessons learned for our audience that we hope to get to as well.
Troy Cribb (02:48.088)
Yeah, sure. So, well, I have been at the partnership now for a little over seven years. Came here after mostly a lot of years in government. I did practice law for a while, but mostly I loved being in government. I started out on Capitol Hill for one of my home state senators right out of college and was there for a stretch, then was down at the Commerce Department for five years.
then practiced law and really wanted to come back into government, ended up on the Senate Homeland Security Governmental Affairs Committee for a long stretch of 10 years. And coming to that committee, my background really was in international trade. And so when I took the job, I really kind of expected that...
The portfolio I would take on would mostly be related to that. What happened was that while I was on vacation right before I started that job, Hurricane Katrina hit. And of course we all remember all of the heartbreak and the challenges related to the federal government's response. Well, response at all levels of government. obviously with his GAC, and I'm sorry to use
Jason Briefel (03:53.004)
Mm.
Troy Cribb (04:09.994)
that acronym but it does stand for for those who don't know the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee which is quite a mouthful to say every time so I'll use Hisgec. You know Hisgec has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA as well as government -wide responsibilities for making government work well.
So when I showed up on the first day of work, the whole staff really on both sides of the aisle with Senator Lieberman's staff and Senator Collins' we were getting ready to undertake a very, very large investigation into what some of the deficiencies were of the response to Hurricane Katrina. So in embarking on that, they were dividing up some responsibilities.
I started taking on some issues I hadn't been as involved with before, ranging from the emergency communications to government contracting. And I was very interested in taking on the part of the investigation related to government contracting because there's so much money involved. And the more I learned about it, the more I learned how critical
contracting is to the ability of the federal government to carry out its mission and at the time that Hurricane Katrina had hit there were a lot of
vacancies in the career office of FEMA. There was a lack of kind of long -term contracts in place in some respects to be able to like move quickly to get needed goods and services. And so that was as far as my career just a really pivotal stage because I kind of fell in love with all of the contracting issues. Continued to work on
Troy Cribb (06:19.201)
those through my whole time on the committee and including kind of looking at how contracting also it's just incredibly important to the Department of Homeland Security as a whole because we had jurisdiction over DHS and and lots of big issues going on there we did a lot of oversight also into
contract issues related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So I just always have found it an extremely interesting area. From Hizgahk I went down to the General Services Administration and headed up the Policy Office there, which oversaw different types of government -wide policy, but including acquisition as well. Then I've come to the partnership where we
just you know work in general to make the government more efficient and to get better results for the people we serve and certainly contracting plays a big part in that efficiency and I also right now I'm chairing a federal advisory committee for GSA on acquisition so get to keep my hand in it from that angle as well.
Jason Briefel (07:40.29)
Yeah, no, I love that and I love that story and it is interesting how those unexpected moments in life or just stuff that happens sends you on a new path. And here you are almost 20 years later, I guess.
Troy Cribb (07:46.35)
Yep.
And.
Troy Cribb (07:55.066)
answer.
Jason Briefel (07:58.7)
Well, and I think that that is great. And as you mentioned, Troy, you've seen this issue from up on the hill. You're still working on these issues with the advisory committee. And you were there at GSA working alongside the administrator and other officials.
Troy Cribb (08:14.527)
And I'll also point out from the transition angle, I went through two transitions. I was at the Commerce Department in the Clinton administration, so I was part of the
outgoing transition, which, you know, of course was delayed given the 2000 election and then was at GSA and I mean, yeah, GSA had in 2016. So went through transition activities that year as well. So I've seen it in that respect. And when I was on HISCAC, another part of my portfolio was actually working on the Presidential Transition Act and some changes we
Jason Briefel (08:36.044)
Mm -hmm.
Troy Cribb (08:59.644)
we were sending through in 2015. So it's weird how all of this all comes together, right?
Jason Briefel (09:06.239)
Right. Yeah. Well, and you know, it's a continuous process of improvement on a lot of these areas. But right now there is important movement happening, you know, within agencies, we're starting teams from both of the campaigns are preparing to come in. That means career officials are getting stuff in order in terms of their plans, their priorities, those risk areas. Tell us about right now in like this month of September.
Like, what is going on as folks are gearing up for the presidential transition? And what should folks expect over the next few months as it relates to acquisition issues?
Troy Cribb (09:44.578)
All right. So.
Troy Cribb (09:50.146)
On the government side and under the framework of the Presidential Transition Act, agencies have been busy for months now in starting to get ready for transition. And the way it works is that each agency has a senior career person who's in charge of transition activities, which makes sense because you want someone who's going to be there at the time the transition is happening into inauguration.
day. So those agency transition directors lead efforts from within their departments or agencies and they coordinate with
the different components within their agencies. And they work in conjunction with the Federal Transition Coordinator at GSA, which is a career person appointed for purposes of the Presidential Transition Act to help coordinate transition across all of the government. they have been working hard, as I say, for several months now.
They actually have under the Act a November 1st deadline for producing briefing materials for an incoming administration so that that will all be ready to go even before the election. And obviously when they prepare those briefing materials, they don't know who the winner is going to be. So they're designed to provide helpful information like no matter.
which side wins the election. I think even if you have a transition to a second term, which of course we're not in this election year, although I think if the Harris team wins, it's a little bit kind of a mix of going to a second term plus start of a new term.
Jason Briefel (11:49.607)
There's uncertainty whether those plans or those priorities stay this year.
Troy Cribb (11:52.362)
It's a little bit of a hybrid, but I think that all of the preparations that the agencies undergo are useful even if a second term is coming in because undoubtedly you have high turnover of political appointees traditionally and going from a first or second term. And then obviously if it's a different administration coming in, these briefing materials are incredible.
important to helping them hit the ground running. So the briefing materials are prepared and a couple of different audiences in mind. First in between the election and inauguration day you have
teams from the transition who will come in to talk with the agencies and get briefed. They're not necessarily the people who are gonna be stepping in as appointees on January 20th, so as those folks come in the agencies will, you know, be ready to go into deeper dives on issues of importance to
the incoming president -elect and their teams. So that's just kind of a broad overview. think certainly the acquisition issues can be very important as far as these materials that outline what some of the major
challenges an incoming administration may face and you know, especially in the first 30 days or 60 days or 90 days and so especially for agencies that are trying to modernize their operations there may be important issues related to IT contracts or or efforts related to customer service and and things like that. So certainly I think
Troy Cribb (14:04.06)
Acquisition issues can come up pretty frequently in just helping bring transition teams and then incoming appointees up to speed on what's going on in the different agencies.
Jason Briefel (14:16.436)
Yeah, and just so that's really helpful to have that overview. It's also helpful to know, especially for our folks on the agency side, that there's going to be different groups of people coming in, you know, from related to the transition, some of whom may stay, some of whom won't. But that that information is designed and intended to help them get up to speed, understand where those risks and those opportunities are, and probably
teeing up some potential decisions or items for action after the new year that people aren't going to the time otherwise to get prepared for.
In terms of the career staff, you you said that they've been at this for several months. And we talked about in general some of those areas that they're putting together. there any things that, you know, your general acquisition career staff are focused on or might be seeing kind of move through their desk station or through their workflows that they may be touching a part of?
But they're not seeing where it goes all the way up, up to the top. Just how do we help the 100 ,000 plus federal acquisition career workforce understand all these moving parts? Or is this pretty normal for them?
Troy Cribb (15:33.05)
Right. Well, I think most of the acquisition workforces, they remain focused on their tasks at hand of negotiating contracts that are coming down the pike. At the more senior levels, of course,
the senior procurement executive of an agency may be asked to help contribute to some of the briefing materials. so they, to some extent, will be involved in that process as well, or perhaps called in to brief transition team members or incoming appointees. I think that for both the acquisition workforce side and the contractor,
side as well. It's just important for them to know that this process is going on. mean part of this is to allow a transition team to get the lay of the land and the agencies and to, in a lot of respects, think about how does current agency spending line up against the priorities of an incoming president. So
As I say, both the acquisition workforce and our friends in industry who support the government need to understand this process and be aware that there could be some shifts and priorities that then would impact spending under an incoming administration or impact budget request going forward.
Jason Briefel (17:20.022)
Yeah, and we also find ourselves in this familiar but unfortunate situation where there is no budget predictability. I think we anticipate another continuing resolution, but we don't know for how long. Again, we're kind of used to this, but it's got to, it's certainly got to scramble and make putting those options together more challenging and less predictable on both sides of the fence.
Troy Cribb (17:28.601)
Right.
Troy Cribb (17:47.918)
agree.
Jason Briefel (19:00.674)
So I want to help give folks a firmer idea of the some of the dates and timelines that are that are coming up, Troy. You mentioned that there's a November deadline for briefing materials and that we have these different teams of folks coming in, know, some of the landing teams versus the folks who are eventually going to come on and join the agency. Are any of those dates like written down or do you have some of those key dates available just so folks can understand kind of the timeline and how things are supposed to progress to this system?
Troy Cribb (19:47.834)
Well, sure. The November 1 deadline for briefing materials is in the Presidential Transition Act. There is also a deadline for agencies to be putting together
information for incoming teams about the secession orders within the agencies so that they have information on you know which career people are going to be kind of stepping in when as the politicals leave because that gives them an understanding of who they're going to be talking to and
Jason Briefel (20:26.348)
Mm -hmm.
Troy Cribb (20:34.97)
If I didn't mention it, that's September 15. So those are a couple of key dates. The other key date that we can't always identify when happens is when there is a clear winner of the race and GSA ascertains the winner.
that typically has been done on the date that the other candidate or candidates concede. Of course, four years ago was very different. And since that time, Congress has updated the Presidential Transition Act to speak a little more specifically about that process as far as determining the winner and
Jason Briefel (21:17.023)
All
Jason Briefel (21:27.82)
And the goal of those changes was.
Troy Cribb (21:31.406)
There is a period of five days after the election in which if one candidate is not conceded, GSA is in a little bit of a holding pattern for those five days. And then after the five days,
it gets back kind of more to the traditional way ascertainment has been done and the act lays out kind of some more mandatory considerations for GSA to consider as kind of the clock ticks and you know state certify their votes or the
Jason Briefel
So, so Troy, it sounds like there's some key dates and deadlines that agencies need to hit and that Congress has put in place over the years to keep the process moving, keep the process on track and keep information flowing as much as possible pending a defined outcome of the election.
Can you just help us make sure that we haven't missed any of those key dates and deadlines so folks can be tracking them?
Troy Cribb (24:41.602)
Yeah, sure. I'll just hit on a few. mean, a couple of them, as I say, happened months ago where by the agency transition directors council is stood up six months before the election. There's also a separate council led by the White House that gives overarching direction to the agencies on transition.
I mentioned the November 1st deadline for briefing materials. There's also a deadline of September 15th for agencies to have their succession plans in order. This is so that that information would all be ready for an incoming team to know.
which career people might be stepping in as some of the senior political people are rolling out if there's a change in the administration. So I think that that's another important one. I'll also mention that after the last election, Congress updated the Presidential Transition Act to address the situation of a prolonged uncertainty in an election result. And I think going into all the details of that would
require another podcast but suffice it to say that
Jason Briefel (26:03.862)
you
Troy Cribb (26:08.404)
If there's a period of uncertainty that drags out longer than five days after the election, then GSA is directed to give transition assistance equitably to the remaining eligible candidates. So that is something new and I'm sure is a discussion amongst all the agencies as to how they would go about that. But the impetus behind that change by Congress
was to make sure that if there is a prolonged period of uncertainty that the team of the eventual winner is prepared to take office on January 20th.
Jason Briefel (26:54.538)
Yeah, and it's been great to see, you know, every election cycle Congress work on a bipartisan basis to try to shore up these gaps or holes that get discovered just as we experience that. And are there any changes that are still being looked at that could affect this cycle or would they affect future cycles if enacted?
Troy Cribb (27:01.434)
great.
great.
Troy Cribb (27:09.23)
now.
Troy Cribb (27:19.354)
I likely not to affect this cycle given that we're almost to the election. Senators Gary Peters, who now chairs Hisgec and Senator Susan Collins have teamed up on some legislation that Hisgec passed out of committee several months ago that would, and just in some respects, bring the act up in line with some of the
best practices that
that we've seen over the past couple of transitions. Like for example, I've mentioned the agency transition directors council under the act, they need to be kind of up and running six months before the election. In practice, a lot of agencies are already identifying who their transition leads are gonna be. the Peters Collins bill, for example, would kind of move up.
by a few months when those people are identified. another example would be in past cycles, the GSA has identified the federal transition coordinator about a couple of years out. That's not in the law, but that bill would put that in the law. So.
That's kind of moving along, but I would expect that any final version of that bill would then affect the next transition cycle.
Jason Briefel (28:52.922)
Got it, that makes sense. One thing I wanted to be sure to grab you on and get your insights on is just your experience working at GSA and working for the administrator in the lead acquisition policy official role. Just, you know, as we're thinking and talking about this topic, was there anything from that experience that really stood out to you or surprised you that you think is helpful for?
other officials who might be coming in and advising at that level or just kind of lessons or takeaways you had after you walked away from that.
Troy Cribb (30:00.25)
So do you mean as far as like an incoming appointees and experience here?
Jason Briefel (30:03.402)
Yeah, yeah, like is was there anything that you figured that you observed or found? Coming in and then did you have any different perspectives on it on the way out? Learn any lessons there?
Troy Cribb (30:14.306)
Yeah, so well first I found, I was coming from the Hill and had done oversight of GSA for kind of a long time before I took on my role at GSA. So I knew a fair amount about the agency. That having been said, like my briefings that I got when I first got to GSA were excellent. And I got very deep dives into,
the different parts of the office that I was being brought in to lead. got
other briefings from other parts of the agency. And I think it's a good lesson there that agencies be prepared, you know, at any time during a presidency to to have like that solid level of briefings ready because, you know, at any point during a presidency there's turnover. And that really, think, also
Troy Cribb (31:19.834)
helped our office of government -wide policy to be in really great shape then to be getting together our part of the overall GSA briefing materials for the 2016 to 2017 transition. So that's one lesson of
Jason Briefel (31:42.604)
Be ready. Be ready for anyone.
Troy Cribb (31:42.758)
of having, you know, being prepared. And then as much as I already knew about GSA, I was always finding out other things I didn't know before. Like for example, when I was on the Hill, I knew that GSA administered the .gov contract, you know, on which all the federal, state, and local governments.
Jason Briefel (32:06.348)
web domain.
Troy Cribb (32:09.292)
rise to an incredibly important function. I didn't know it was in the office of government -wide policy. And I actually thought, well, that's kind of a strange place given, you know, just increasing security concerns and all of that. And so there were, there were always things like that, that I was finding out of like, wow, I didn't know. And that contract was, was up for renewal or competition, I should say that year. And, you know, of course that
was a year when we were going through a lot of CRs and so a challenging process since that time that the actual administration of the contract has been moved over to DHS but GSA still plays a policy role in administering that but yeah, know that there are...
Jason Briefel (32:42.946)
Okay.
Jason Briefel (32:57.59)
Makes sense to me.
Troy Cribb (33:05.784)
There are all just sorts of different ways that appointees are going to be getting very, very deep dives into the different aspects of agencies. And I would say just...
you know, far as just some practical advice for agencies as they have the appointees coming in, you know, some may already be experienced with the agency or have served in government before, but still.
They need those deeper dives. A lot of appointees are going to be coming in who've never worked for the federal government before and especially with acquisition, it's so important as part of the onboarding of those appointees for the agencies to be able to
be explaining all the different ways that federal acquisition is different than acquisition in the private sector. And it's a highly, highly regulated operation of the government to try to safeguard the spending of the taxpayer monies and protect against waste, fraud and abuse. So I think that that's a big learning curve for appointees coming in and
Agencies can help educate appointees on all the different types of risks involved with things going wrong in contracts. Obviously, there are risks to the mission of the agency if things don't go well. There could be legal consequences if they're...
Troy Cribb (34:57.347)
if there are bed protests or then movement into court or actions that can delay...
you know, the agency being able to move forward. So compliance with all the laws and regulations to try to protect against that are extremely important. There's the whole issue of what we, in the partnership we refer to as both ethics and optics because certainly like complying with all of the ethical related rules related to contracting and
Jason Briefel (35:26.54)
Mm -hmm.
Troy Cribb (35:37.676)
You know not having political interference with the contracts. That's highly important but even even things that may strictly be legal but still have bad optics can harm the agency but you know Attracting negative press and All of these things that can go wrong certainly can invite more oversight by the congressional
Jason Briefel (35:51.436)
Thank you.
Jason Briefel (35:58.892)
All right.
Troy Cribb (36:07.148)
committees, the government accountability office, the inspectors general. So there's a lot to be sensitive of. And again, appointees stepping into one of these roles may not necessarily know of all the consequences and the risks.
Jason Briefel (36:25.143)
Mm -hmm.
Right. that's why they need those career staff who are there with the comprehensive briefings to help them be successful without stepping on one of those legal or ethical landmines.
Jason Briefel (38:13.139)
All right, Troy. Well, in our last few minutes here, I wanted to make sure that we mentioned some of the great resources that you and the team at the Partnership for Public Service have put together relevant for our conversation today. Can you let folks know where they might look for or find some of those things?
Troy Cribb (38:28.174)
Well, sure, I'd be glad to because we love to share information on these topics and to provide this very practical information for all of those kind of impacted by the transition process, whether you're a transition team or the agency's preparing for transition or if you're someone who's interested in serving as a political appointee, we have lots of information.
Residentialtransition .org is the website for the Partnership Center for Presidential Transition. So there's all sorts of great information on how transitions work and how the Presidential Transition Act works. For example, if you're interested in knowing more about how agencies prepare for transitions, we have an agency transition guide on the website that has tons of
of great information. And then as I mentioned, we have...
Other materials if you're interested in becoming an appointee we have part of the website called ready to serve which has information on all the steps of the process you can expect to be going through if you're applying for and then are Moving along and selected for being an appointee including a lot of helpful information about all the forms you're gonna have to fill out for background investigations
Jason Briefel (40:03.106)
you
Troy Cribb (40:05.128)
or for the ethics forms or if you're getting a security clearance. that's another good resource. Then for the incoming appointees, we have a program called Ready to Govern. Again, you can find that on the website. It has some information on it that's available to the public. We also have a program called Ready to Govern, which is geared towards the incoming appointees. We have...
Troy Cribb (41:57.76)
some materials for ready to govern available to the public on the website that you can take a look at and then as administrations come in and then even throughout the term of a precedent we will collaborate with the presidential personnel office and the office of personnel management to provide trainings for appointees throughout the government so acquisition is one of
the key parts of that curriculum, other courses touch on ethics or building strong relationships between political appointees and the career workforce and understanding the budget cycle. So all of this is designed to really help appointees come into the government and kind of understand how the government is different than working outside the government.
Finally, we have a program also called Ready to Act, which is geared towards the senior career officials within the agencies who will be called to step in to play acting roles as political appointees leave. So those are a few of the resources on the website that I think your audience would be interested in.
Jason Briefel (43:18.54)
I it.
Jason Briefel (43:22.794)
Yeah, well, thanks so much. Troy Cribb, Director of Policy at the Partnership for Public Service, fellow Good Government Circle Traveler. Thanks so much for helping me and our Fed Talk audience get a little bit smarter about the ins and outs and the things that are going on this fall as agencies and potential appointees and vendors prepare for a change of administration one way or another.
We know acquisition is going to be a key part of how agencies fulfill their mission and get the job done for the American people. So I really appreciate your time sharing your insights and knowledge with us. That's all the time we've got on Fed Talk today. Have a great day. Thanks, Troy.
Troy Cribb (44:05.582)
Thank you so much, Jason. Pleasure to talk to you.
