Interior Secretary Deb Haaland emphasized a “peaceful transition” of power to staffers as her department prepares for the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump’s first staff members.
In a departmentwide email sent Friday and obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, Haaland said that members of Trump’s agency review team will begin to arrive in the coming weeks at Interior Department headquarters, the Steward Lee Udall building on C Street near the White House.
Those team members prepare for the handover of power on Inauguration Day in January, compiling briefing materials and coordinating between Interior’s transition officials and the president-elect’s transition staff.
Haaland noted in the email that Interior’s Core Transition Team (CTT) — led by the director of the department’s Office of Law Enforcement and Security, Rob MacLean — has been preparing for this moment since May “to help ensure a seamless process that prioritizes stability and continuity.” She said MacLean’s team will be the main point of contact with Trump agency review staff and that employees should not be approached directly about the transition by the president-elect’s staff.
