Action Effective Jan. 20 Would Smooth Way for Bush Transition Team : Reagan Orders Resignations of Senior Officials

WASHINGTON — Moving to smooth the way for the incoming Bush Administration, President Reagan Thursday ordered the 525 most senior officials in the government to submit their resignations, effective Jan. 20, the day George Bush assumes the presidency.

The directive was issued as the President-elect conferred with Reagan, met with leaders of the Afghan resistance and conferred with Vice President-elect Dan Quayle and senior staff members on the complex transition process before leaving for a long weekend in Florida.

‘Nuts and Bolts’ of Process

With senior Bush advisers and their White House counterparts working on what were described as “nuts and bolts” of the process, scores of people inside and outside Bush’s immediate circle assembled and refined rosters of potential senior officials to replace the departing Reagan team.

Rumors and speculation about the names were swapped actively throughout Washington by those seeking signals on the policy directions that the new and as yet unformed Administration might follow.

A leading subject was former Sen. John Tower of Texas, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who sources have indicated is being considered for the post of defense secretary.

Those reports, however, were countered by insiders’ suggestions that James A. Baker III, Bush’s choice for secretary of state and one of his closest confidants, is wary of Tower because he fears that the former senator would be inflexible on necessary trims in the military budget. Tower has a history of vigorously pushing for increased defense spending.

For his part, Bush was tipping his hand not at all on this or any other personnel issue.

Sheila Tate, Bush’s press secretary for the transition, said that his meeting with top aides and the other staff sessions were “aimed at getting the doors open Monday morning,” when the Bush transition office begins official operations.

“We want to hit the ground running,” she said.

Tate said that Reagan sought the resignations of the government’s senior officials because “it’s important that the President-elect have the widest latitude to put his own imprint on the Administration.”

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said he “can’t imagine” that the senior officials, who serve at the pleasure of the President, would be asked to leave before Jan. 20, and that some may indeed be asked to remain on the job after then, until their replacements are confirmed by the Senate and are sworn into office.

The atmosphere for the transition arrangements is particularly amicable because this is the first such “friendly” change of power since Republican Herbert Hoover replaced Republican Calvin Coolidge in 1929.

Thursday, Bush proceeded through a day typical of many of those he has spent over the past eight years as vice president. He arrived at the White House at about 7:15 a.m., received his daily intelligence briefing by a Central Intelligence Agency staff member and met with Reagan in the Oval Office at 9 a.m.

He also met for about a half-hour during the morning with Craig Fuller, his chief of staff, and Robert Teeter, a senior political adviser. Fuller and Teeter head his transition office.

During the afternoon, he was given a standing ovation by Reagan’s Cabinet at the start of one of its rare meetings. The only publicly announced Bush meeting unrelated to the transition was with Afghan rebel leader Burhannudin Rabbani, at which the President-elect assured Rabbani of his full support “for the total withdrawal of Soviet troops and the self-determination of the Afghan people,” said Bush spokesman Steve Hart.

As darkness descended, Bush flew aboard Air Force II to West Palm Beach, Fla., to spend the weekend at the Del Ray Beach home of William Farish, a friend with whom he has spent vacations in the past.

Bush arrived in Florida about 8 p.m. To a shouted question from a reporter, he enthusiastically responded that the transition “couldn’t be going better, great.”

An obviously upbeat Bush said also that his meeting earlier Thursday with Fuller and Teeter had been “absolutely fantastic.” No transition officials or prospective Bush Administration appointees were expected to join him during the vacation.

Questions, Rumors

Bush left behind in Washington scores of questions and rumors about the upcoming key appointments.

Much speculation focused on Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh. While some Bush aides sent signals on election day that he might be replaced, one source close to Bush said that the President-elect wants to move to a more moderate approach to civil rights issues than that followed by the Reagan Justice Department.

To that end, he said, Thornburgh fits the mold, and in his view “practically has a lock on that position.” Thornburgh said in an interview that he has had no conversation with the vice president “or his people” on the subject of his future--”nor would I expect to.”

He discounted reports that he was out of the running as well as reports that he was a certain holdover. “When I get something authoritative, it will come from the Administration,” he said.

Another current Cabinet member, Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, is also among those who sources have indicated is likely to stay. But under one scenario, Brady, a long-time friend of Bush, could become White House chief of staff.

Alton Keel, who served briefly as acting national security adviser when Reagan was seeking to pull himself out of the Iran-Contra affair, was said to be interested in that post in a Bush White House.

Dozens of other names also figured in the speculation about appointments to the new Administration. Among those mentioned as possible transportation secretaries were Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, former NASA Administrator James Beggs, former Deputy Transportation Secretary John Barnum, former Federal Highway Administrator Ray Barnhardt and Reps. Guy V. Molinari (R-N.Y.), Lynn Martin (R-Ill.), and Lawrence Coughlin (R-Pa.).

A Labor Department source said that Constance Horner, the head of the Office of Personnel Management, is considered a top candidate to become secretary of labor.

A senior congressional source said that those on the list of possible agriculture secretaries included U.S. Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter; former Rep. Cooper Evans (R-Iowa); Kalo A. Hineman, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Dean Kleckner, former head of the American Farm Bureau. Bush has said that he would want someone who has been an active farmer to head the department.

Meanwhile, the White House was putting the finishing touches on the federal budget Reagan will submit to Congress--leaving his own mark on the spending plan for fiscal 1990 with only some influence from the President-elect.

A senior White House official said that the Bush team is concentrating on personnel matters and is not prepared to get involved in the details of the budget.

Staff writers Cathleen Decker, William J. Eaton, Paul Houston, Robert L. Jackson, Douglas Jehl, Lee May and Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.