The presidential transition of George H. W. Bush began when then-Vice President Bush won the United States 1988 United States presidential election, becoming the president-elect, and ended when Bush was inaugurated at noon EST on January 20, 1989.
The transition was a "friendly takeover", in which the outgoing president and the president-elect were of the same political party.
"Friendly takeover" This transition was an instance of a "friendly takeover", a term used for a presidential transition in which both the outgoing and incoming presidents are of the same political party. In November 1988, Chase Untermeyer would embrace describing the Bush transition with this term. In this instance, both the outgoing Ronald Reagan and the incoming Bush were Republicans, and Bush was the incumbent vice president, having served under Reagan since 1981. This was the eleventh instance of a post-election "friendly takeover" in United States history, and the first instance of one since Herbert Hoover, in his presidential transition, succeeded Calvin Coolidge. This was also the first presidential transition in which an outgoing president was handing-over power to their own vice president since the 1836–37 transition, when Andrew Jackson was succeeded by his vice president Martin Van Buren.
Pre-election developments
Legislative changes
Ahead of the 1988 election, there was bipartisan agreement that changes needed to be made to presidential transitions in order to make them easier. This agreement between parties, perhaps, was attributable to the fact that there would be a presidential transition occurring in the year 1988, since President Reagan was term-limited. One of the changes being pushed in congress was to increase the amount of funds provided by the government to a transition. Since 1976, the government had provided $2 million to the president-elect's team and $1 million to the outgoing president's administration to fund a transition.
Legislation named the Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act was successfully passed in 1988. In part, this legislation increases the amount given to presidential transitions to $3.5 million for the president-elect's team and $1.5 million to the outgoing president's administration. It also required that private contributions to transitions and the names of transition personnel would be publicly disclosed. It required, in return for receiving federal services and funding, transition teams would formally disclose the date, source, and amount of all privately contributed funds within 30 days after the inauguration. The legislation also placed a cap of $5,000 on private contributions from any one person or organization to a transition team. The bill also required transitions to disclose information about transition team members prior to initial contact with a federal department or agency.
There had also been an unsuccessful effort to altogether stop president-elects from accepting private contributions to help fund their transitions, a bill for which was approved in the United States House of Representatives on March 31, 1988.
Transition planning
Early discussions about a prospective presidential transition for Bush began in late 1987. In January of 1988, Bush privately selected Chase Untermeyer to lead the pre-election planning of his potential presidential transition.
Six months before the election, in April of 1988 (after Bush had become the Republican Party's presumptive nominee), action for the planning for a potential Bush presidential transition began in earnest, being led, at this stage, by Untermeyer. This planning effort maintained a low-key profile.
At the same time, Reagan's staff took steps to prepare for a presidential transition. This included having his director of President Personnel meet with Untermeyer for discussions, and having his White House chief of staff, Kenneth Duberstein, prepare a checklist for the transition team of whichever candidate would win the election.
In mid-October, Bush said that, if elected, he would be ready to quickly name his Cabinet picks.