President-elect Donald Trump this week signed onto an agreement that will help create a smooth transition of power between administrations.

The agreement — known as a memorandum of understanding — was announced by Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, in a Tuesday statement.

“After completing the selection process of his incoming Cabinet, President-elect Trump is entering the next phase of his administration’s transition by executing a Memorandum of Understanding with President Joe Biden’s White House,” Wiles said.

What exactly does the agreement provide?

It allows for Trump’s Cabinet nominees to begin coordinating with the federal departments they are poised to take over in less than two months.

The nominees — who include Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Scott Bessent for treasury secretary — will now be able to deploy “landing teams” to these departments.

“The transition landing teams will quickly integrate directly into federal agencies and departments with access to documents and policy sharing,” Wiles said. “Per the agreement, the transition will disclose the landing team members to the Biden administration.”

Wiles also said that the Trump transition team “will operate as a self-sufficient organization.”

To that point, the team will not sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, which is required by law to offer federal funding, office space and other support to a president-elect during the transition period.

“The agreement dictates that the Trump-Vance Transition will utilize private funding,” Wiles said, “providing cost savings to American taxpayers. Donors to the Transition will be disclosed to the public.”

The memo also revealed the existence an ethics plan, which includes promises that incoming officials will avoid conflicts of interest and safeguard classified information, among other things.

The agreement comes three weeks after Trump won the presidential election, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.

In comparison, Biden signed onto a similar memorandum with the first Trump administration in early September 2020, weeks before the presidential election, according to The Washington Post.

Additionally, Trump’s team has not formalized an agreement with the Department of Justice that would authorize the FBI to perform background checks on nominees, according to Reuters.

“Circumventing background checks would buck a long-established norm in Washington, but the president has the final authority on whom he nominates and picks to conduct background checks,” according to the outlet.

Wiles, in her statement, said Trump’s team has “existing security and information protections built in, which means we will not require additional government and bureaucratic oversight.”

_____

©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.