Fedweek

The transition team for the incoming Trump administration has assigned several familiar persons to key roles. Linda Springer, OPM director during the second George W. Bush term—and an OMB official before that and an executive with a large accounting and consulting firm since leaving OPM—is heading the “landing team” at OMB, while the team at OPM itself is headed by Paul Conway, who was chief of staff to Bush’s first OPM director, Kay Coles James. He also has held senior positions at Labor and DHS and with several conservative advocacy groups. The transition team for the third central management agency, GSA, is being headed by Robert Mackichan, who has held legal counsel positions there under prior Republican administrations. Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., is to be nominated to head HHS. As chair of the House Budget Committee, Price advocated linking the government contribution toward FEHB premiums to annual general inflation rather than to the usually higher growth in premium costs—and instituting a similar voucher-type system for Medicare—and reducing the government share for retirees who had relatively short federal service. Also, Sen Claire McCaskill of Missouri has been named the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. As ranking Democrat on the committee’s investigative subcommittee, McCaskill was active in matters involving federal employee security clearances, issues related to the breaches of the OPM database breaches, and oversight of contractors. She replaces Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who is becoming the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee; Carper has been the leading Senate advocate of postal reform.