While the public casts their votes for the next president, federal agencies have been busy at work preparing for the transition. And in the process, they’re creating a lot of documents that you can request.

One of the most important pieces of the presidential transition process is a program run by the General Services Administration (GSA). The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 authorizes funding for the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide support for candidates via office space, technology services and even funding for certain personnel costs or expert consulting. The GSA smooths out the logistics of one of the most complicated government undertakings: the peaceful transition between the incoming and outgoing presidential administrations.

Ahead of the election, presidential campaigns typically sign the GSA’s ethics plan and a memorandum of understanding (MOU), agreeing to participate in the program and receive resources from the GSA. However, this election cycle, only the Harris campaign has signed the documents, which are now available on the GSA’s website. If the Trump campaign doesn’t sign, he would be the first presidential candidate to decline to participate in the formal federal process, according to the Washington Post.

For the public’s right to know, the benefit of the formalities of the GSA program is that it makes explicit some of the types of public records that could be produced in the presidential transition. We took a closer look and found five requests that you can file, no matter the outcome of the election.

Transition briefing materials

A copy of the primary briefing materials prepared in part or whole for purposes of the Presidential Transition Process, specifically any presentations created for, or delivered to, members of the Presidential Transition Team for the new administration

As they prepare for the next administration, federal agencies are required to create transition briefing materials, including communications, guides, and memos for transition assistance.

Some of these materials have already been prepared, as agencies are required by Sept.15 of a presidential election year to ensure a “succession plan is in place for each senior non-career position in the agency.” During the transition to the Trump administration, MuckRock requester Nathan Lawrence filed for the National Security Agency’s transition materials.

Exit ethics and offboarding materials for departing employees

All plans, memos, reports, briefings or “exit ethics” briefings created for the purpose of transferring institutional knowledge and offboarding personnel in the presidential transition

At the same time the new administration is preparing to make appointments and onboard new employees, other employees will be on their way out. The materials created to offboard employees of the previous administration could reflect how much that agency believes their work will change under the next president and how.

Guidance from the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) states that agencies should put together plans for offboarding employees during the presidential transition that include guidance on records management and “exit ethics” briefings. OMB asks agencies to refer to guidance issued by the National Archives and Records Administration, which describes offboarding as a critical process that ensures “proper retention of assets, transfer of institutional knowledge, and termination of secured access for exiting personnel.”

Security clearances

A list of all transition team members that each eligible candidate requested for security clearance

Each “eligible candidate,” as defined by the GSA, can submit requests for security clearances that allow that candidate’s transition team to begin reviewing classified and sensitive material during the transition. A list of security clearance requests reveals who on a candidate’s team is gaining access to the country’s most sensitive information.

Because the Trump transition team has not yet signed the ethics pledge and entered into the MOU to work with GSA on the transition, his team would have a late start on applying for security clearances.

Transition team communications

All email exchanges, including underlying attachments, between agency employees, on or after November 5, 2024, until the date this request is ultimately fulfilled, which are to, from or cc’d with the domain “kamalaharris.com,” “harris-walz.com,” or or “ptt.gov”

To coordinate the transition of power from one president to the next, there could be a lot of communication that happens over email. Requesting communications between the GSA and a candidate’s transition team might unearth just how much of the transition happens in email conversations.

For Trump’s 2016 transition team, it seems that email was the center of many of the transition’s most important decisions. In 2017, Trump’s transition team told Axios that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had obtained “many tens of thousands” of Trump transition emails, revealing conversations related to “sensitive exchanges on matters that include potential appointments, gossip about the views of particular senators involved in the confirmation process, speculation about vulnerabilities of Trump nominees, strategizing about press statements, and policy planning on everything from war to taxes.”

Sources told Axios that the GSA had hosted a transition email system with addresses ending in “ptt.gov,” for the Presidential Transition Team.

Reassignments and appointments

• Written notices of reassignments sent to Senior Executive Service members from January 20, 2025 to the date this request is processed
• Written consent waivers for reassignments sent by Senior Executive Service members
• Human Resources documents stating that new personnel are being appointed by agency head

For those who are interested in what happens following Inauguration Day, reassignment and appointment requests can provide a look into how new agency heads deal with current federal employees. In 2017, MuckRock requester Alexander Rony filed a request with the Environmental Protection Agency, after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt bypassed the White House and reassigned two staff members via the Safe Drinking Water Act, which led to raises for the staffers.

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Images in header illustration from Tada Images via Shutterstock and via Wikimedia Commons, and are not licensed for reuse without prior authorization. Illustration: Dillon Bergin.