Clinton Team Hits Snag Over Bush Holdovers

The smooth transition from the Bush to Clinton Administrations hit some rough waters Friday, with the Bush team refusing two requests from the incoming Administration: to allow some senior Bush appointees to stay as holdovers and to speed the Democrats’ housecleaning by obtaining the resignations of lower-ranking appointees.

The issue raises the essential question of how the government will run beginning next Wednesday afternoon when the Bush team leaves and the Clinton team moves in.

It also illuminates how slowly the President-elect has moved. Many of former President Ronald Reagan’s and Bush’s second-tier nominations had been made by this period in their Administrations. And for scores of lower-level political appointees, it raises more questions about when they lose their jobs.

Friday the Office of Personnel Management told each agency to designate one presidentially nominated and confirmed person at each agency to stay on past noon Wednesday. That person will conduct the essential business.

But with virtually no one but Cabinet secretaries and some White House staff named by Clinton, his transition team this week asked the Republicans to leave in place certain senior officials--presidential appointees subject to Senate confirmation, or PAS employees--to provide a sense of continuity. “The Clinton people have apparently recognized that they need to have some people in place to run the government until they get around to making personnel decisions,” said one senior White House aide making no effort to keep the sarcasm in check.

An Administration official said Clinton transition groups at various departments and agencies had identified a few persons at each they wanted to keep in place until their own people moved in. On Dec. 21, the Bush team sought and received the resignations of all Cabinet secretaries, department and agency heads and PAS officials.

On Thursday, Bush accepted all those resignations, ensuring that his highest-ranking employees will be off the payroll and out of their offices at noon on Wednesday unless the newcomers put them back on the payroll as consultants or submit their names for confirmation as Clinton appointees.

“If the Clinton people need our people to keep the government going, they are going to have to make them Clinton appointees or Clinton consultants,” said an Administration official.

Apparently to assuage the fears of those the Clinton team may ask to stay on, communications director George Stephanopoulos said that the Bush holdovers will not be required to sign or abide by Clinton’s new ethics rules. Some Bush officials feared that they would be bound by Clinton’s rules if asked by either the Bush or Clinton teams to hold over.