Barring a tie after all the votes are counted in the presidential election, America has a president-elect this morning. According to Wikipedia, the term president-elect is a "title used for an incoming president of the United States in the period between the general election on Election Day in November and noon Eastern Standard Time on Inauguration Day, January 20, during which the president-elect is not in office yet."
Again referring to Wikipedia, the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution "moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20, and of members of Congress from March 4 to January 3."
Meanwhile, during his last days in office, President Barack Obama is referred to as a lame-duck president, meaning that his successor has been identified and he will no longer be president effective noon, Jan. 20. And while his replacement is waiting in the wings, the lame-duck president still has all the powers of the presidency until that date.
So what does a president-elect do during the two and a half months while waiting to take office? For a start, the president-elect needs to identify thousands of employees who will run the government for the next four years. A visit to the White House website lists 472 employees who make up the White House staff, plus employees at the Office of Policy Development, the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council. In addition, Cabinet members, undersecretaries, ambassadors to hundreds of countries, and hundreds of other presidential appointments must be identified.
The president-elect has had a transition team in place for months and some of these appointments have already been decided upon. But many of these appointments will unlikely be filled for months after the new president moves into the White House because many of them will need Senate approval. In the old days, this process would take three to six months. But, depending upon which party won the majority of the Senate last night, stalling procedures by Republicans could hold up appointments for years as they have done during the Obama administration.
It helps if the president-elect is from the same political party as the outgoing president. Then, the president-elect can maintain many of the same mid- and lower-level appointments. But if there is a party shift in the White House on Jan. 20, even lower-level appointees who work indirectly for the president or his staff are likely to be replaced.
Meanwhile, back in Congress, known this morning as a lame-duck Congress, a significant amount of reshuffling will be going on there, too, over the next couple of months. Leadership positions have to be worked out before the start of a new session on Jan. 3. Importantly, the lame-duck Congress is still able, if it wishes, to vote on legislation and approve presidential nominations from the lame-duck president. In fact, some outgoing members of Congress may now feel free to vote on bills they would not have considered when running for re-election. As stated by James Wallner and Paul Winfree, writing for the Heritage Foundation, "a new norm has been created in which congressional leaders view lame-duck sessions as critical to completing the regular work of Congress. This practice undermines the ability of the American people to hold their representatives accountable because it allows members to deliberately postpone unpopular decisions until after their constituents cast their votes."
Historically, the lame-duck Congress has continued to work until sometime between mid-November to the Christmas holidays, depending on how much work it must or wishes to finish before the new Congress takes office on Jan. 3. For example, Congress has used lame-duck sessions to pass difficult budget bills that it did not want to address prior to November elections. Frequently, however, it just kicks the ball down the road to the newly elected Congress and lets the new team deal with difficult issues.
Regardless of the outcome last night, congratulations to the president-elect and to all the newly elected members of Congress, as well as to our new state governors and locally elected officials. For the sake of our nation and the future of our children, we wish you all wise counsel and good judgment.
Tom Zirpoli writes from Westminster. He is professor and program coordinator of the Human Services Management graduate program at McDaniel College. His column appears Wednesdays. E-mail him at tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu.
