★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 13176 Superseded 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.23) 📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution

Executive Order 13176—Facilitation of a Presidential Transition

•
Monday, November 27, 2000
•
3 min read (597 words)
•
65 Fed. Reg. 71233

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (597 words) • ● Superseded
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Administrator of General Services, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and the Director of the Office of Government Ethics, shall coordinate orientation activities for key prospective Presidential appointees.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President William J. Clinton on November 27, 2000, this order concerns Facilitation of a Presidential Transition. To assist and support the transition efforts of the President-elect, there is established a Presidential Transition Coordinating Council (Council). (b) The Council shall be composed of the following officials or their designees: Chief of Staff to the President; Counsel to the President; Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary; Assistant to the President for Management and Administration; Assistant to the…

Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

▪
Transition Activities and Materials

The Administrator of General Services, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and the Director of the Office of Government Ethics, shall coordinate orientation activities for key prospective Presidential appointees.

▪

The Council shall be composed of the following officials or their designees: Chief of Staff to the President; Counsel to the President; Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary; Assistant to the President for Management and Administration; Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel; Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Director of the Office of Personnel Management; Administrator of General Services; Archivist of the United States; Commissioner of Internal Revenue; Director of the Office of Government Ethics; and Such others as the President may select.

▪

The Council shall be chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President or his designee.

▪

The Council shall coordinate assistance to the President-elect in fulfilling his responsibilities and make every reasonable effort to facilitate the transition between administrations.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
🏛️

The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority)
§

"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Supportive of Execution
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required
📐

Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
39 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Low Friction

Operates within delegated statutory execution without modifying legislative appropriations or taxing powers.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
ℹ️
How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
597
4,116 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
21
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.23
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including 5 U.S.C. 7301, to further the purposes of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended, and to assist the transition from this Administration to that of the Presidentelect, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

Presidential Transition Coordination. (a) To assist and support the transition efforts of the President-elect, there is established a Presidential Transition Coordinating Council (Council). (b) The Council shall be composed of the following officials or their designees: Chief of Staff to the President; Counsel to the President; Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary; Assistant to the President for Management and Administration; Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel; Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Director of the Office of Personnel Management; Administrator of General Services; Archivist of the United States; Commissioner of Internal Revenue; Director of the Office of Government Ethics; and Such others as the President may select. (c) The Council shall be chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President or his designee. (d) The Council shall coordinate assistance to the President-elect in fulfilling his responsibilities and make every reasonable effort to facilitate the transition between administrations. This assistance may include, among other things, providing publicly available information relevant to facilitating the personnel aspects of a presidential transition and such other information that, in the Council’s judgement, is useful and appropriate as long as providing such information is not otherwise prohibited by law.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

Transition Activities and Materials. (a) The Administrator of General Services, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and the Director of the Office of Government Ethics, shall coordinate orientation activities for key prospective Presidential appointees. (b) The Administrator of General Services, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and the Archivist of the United States, shall develop a transition directory. The transition directory shall include Federal publications and materials that provide information on the officers, organization, and statutory and administrative authorities, functions, duties, responsibilities, and mission of each department and agency. (c) The White House Office of Presidential Personnel shall coordinate with all departments and agencies of the executive branch of the Government to produce a catalogue of all positions in their respective jurisdictions that are filled by presidential appointment requiring Senate confirmation (PAS positions). The catalogue shall include: (1) the legal authority establishing each PAS position; (2) a description of duties and statutory authorities of the position; (3) the names of Senate committees that review nominees for the position; (4) the names of congressional committees with which appointees in the position regularly interact; and (5) the name and contact information of an experienced executive in the agency or department, a previous office holder or a White House Liaison, or a comparable individual who can answer questions about the position. (d) Executive departments and agencies shall prepare a set of orientation materials for new political appointees before the inauguration of the President-elect. Copies of all such materials shall be provided to the Incoming Transition Team upon its request.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

Transition Agreement. To assist and support the transition efforts of the President-elect, a transition agreement between the current Administration and the Office of the President-elect will be entered into regarding transition procedures and identification of transition contacts. William J. Clinton

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

November 27, 2000.

🔗

Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 13,176, 65 Fed. Reg. 71,233 (Nov. 27, 2000).