04 December 2008
Transition FAQs
Q. What is the legal foundation for the transition process?
A. The Presidential Transition Acts of 1963 and 2000 [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/
cdocuments/sd106-30/pdf/pl106-293.pdf] provide the legal framework giving the General Services Administration (GSA) a prominent role in this process. They authorize the administrator of GSA to provide the president-elect and the vice-president-elect the services and facilities needed to assume their official duties.
Q. Why is the inauguration held so long after the election?
A. Inaugurations were originally held on March 4 to allow plenty of time for the electors from each state to cast their ballots. The date was changed to January 20 by a constitutional amendment in 1933.
Q. How much do Americans spend on an inauguration?
A. Inaugural balls are funded privately, and spending varies from administration to administration. George W. Bush’s 2005 celebration included nine inaugural balls and was the most expensive in history at over $42 million. Bill Clinton's first inauguration cost about $30 million, which was comparable to the inaugural costs of George H.W. Bush in 1989.
The mayor of Washington, D.C., has predicted that security and services for the 2009 inauguration will cost the city some $50 million, the same amount Congress provided to both Denver, Colorado, and St. Paul, Minnesota, to host the Republican and Democratic conventions earlier this year.
Q. What special security measures are taken for the ceremony?
A. Security measures include street closures on both sides of the Pennsylvania Avenue Inaugural Parade route, thousands of surveillance cameras, air patrols, sharpshooters, and personal searches. All parade and event attendees are subject to a thorough security screening. The city doubles its 4,100-member police force by calling in officers from other districts, a combined air security plan provides airspace security for the Washington metropolitan area, and there is an enhanced security presence on the waterways around the city.
Q. Is there a specified book on which the new president takes the oath of office?
A. Each president-elect has chosen a Bible to use. Several have used the one from the first inauguration, George Washington’s in New York in 1789 — George W. Bush, for example. Barack Obama will use the same burgundy velvet-bound Bible that was used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861.
Q. When does the old president move out of the White House and the new president move in?
A. When the outgoing and incoming presidents and their families depart the White House at about 10:45 A.M. on January 20, following a traditional coffee meeting, a team of 97 White House workers begins a precisely choreographed, discreet transformation. In only three hours, they will move the outgoing family’s possessions out of and the incoming family’s belongings in to the 132-room presidential mansion.
Q. Who handles the arrangements for the inauguration?
A. The General Services Administration provides support throughout the transition. For the inauguration, various military groups provide logistical support and participate in the ceremony. The Presidential Inaugural Committee decides the details, and the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies handles most of the events at the Capitol.
Q. Who swears in the president?
A. Traditionally, the chief justice of the United States administers the oath of office to the president.
Is the vice president inaugurated at the same time?
A. The vice president is inaugurated shortly before the president. In 1997, for example, Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg administered the oath of office to Vice President Al Gore, Jessye Norman sang a medley of patriotic songs and spirituals, and then Bill Clinton took the oath of office.
Q. Is the outgoing or incoming president required to submit a budget?
A. Prior to 1990, all outgoing presidents were obligated to submit a budget, but a change in the law in 1990 has allowed the outgoing president to leave the budget submission to his successor, an option exercised since that time.
Q. We know Barack Obama likes basketball. Is there a court in the White House?
A. There is an outdoor court near the swimming pool, as well as a horseshoe pit installed by George H.W. Bush. More information is available at http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/.
Q. Are inaugurations always held in Washington, D.C.? When have they been held somewhere else?
A. Under normal circumstances, inaugurations are held on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. George Washington’s first inauguration (1789) was in New York City and his second in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson was the first president whose inauguration (1801) was in Washington, D.C., which had become the capital in June 1800. When there is an extraordinary transition, as upon the death of a president, the new president is sworn in as quickly as possible. For example, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in by a federal district judge aboard Air Force One (the presidential airplane), and upon the death of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a notary public, at his family’s homestead in Plymouth, Vermont.
Q. How can one follow the events related to the transition?
A. The Obama transition team has set up a Web site at www.change.gov.
