The pomp and pageantry of the inaugural celebrations were also shadowed by questions about Trump’s ties to Russia, which U.S. intelligence agencies have determined worked to tip the 2016 election in his favor.

Trump’s inauguration drew crowds to the nation’s capital to witness the history. It repelled others. More than 60 House Democrats refused to attend his swearing in ceremony in the shadow of the Capitol dome. One Democrat who did sit among the dignitaries was Hillary Clinton, Trump’s vanquished campaign rival who was widely expected by both parties to be the one taking the oath of office.

Officials expected hundreds of thousands of people to flock to the National Mall to witness the inauguration of the 45th president, though the crowds appeared smaller than past celebrations. Demonstrations unfolded at various security checkpoints near the Capitol as police in riot gear helped ticket-holders get through to the ceremony.

In a show of solidarity, all of the living American presidents attended the swearing-in ceremony, except for 92-year-old George H.W. Bush, who was hospitalized this week with pneumonia. His wife, Barbara, was also admitted to the hospital after falling ill.

At 70, Trump is the oldest person to be sworn in as president, marking a generational step backward after two terms for Barack Obama, one of the youngest presidents to serve as commander in chief.

Trump takes charge of an economy that has recovered from the Great Recession but has nonetheless left millions of Americans feeling left behind. The nation’s longest war is still being waged in Afghanistan and U.S. troops are battling the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The American health care system was expanded to reach millions more Americans during Obama’s tenure, but at considerable financial costs. Trump has vowed to dismantle and rebuild it.

Trump faces challenges as the first president to take office without ever having held a political position or served in the military. He has stacked his Cabinet with established Washington figures and wealthy business leaders. Though his team’s conservative bent has been cheered by many Republicans, the overwhelmingly white and male Cabinet has been criticized for a lack of diversity.

While Trump came to power bucking convention, he wrapped himself in the traditions that accompany the peaceful transfer of power. Following a morning church service with his family, Trump and his wife, Melania, had tea at the White House with Obama and outgoing first lady Michelle Obama.

The two couples greeted each other with handshakes and hugs, and Mrs. Trump presented Mrs. Obama with a gift. Following their private gathering in the executive mansion, the Trumps and Obamas traveled together to the Capitol for the swearing in ceremony.

• Stepped up cost control.
• Unnecessary programs.
• Too many rules.
• Increased outsourcing and infrastructure.

However, the definitions and boundaries surrounding these concepts aren’t clear. Therefore, it’s important to restate obvious, recognized facts and principles surrounding government acquisition today.

The following nine facts are for the benefit of whoever ends up with influence within the coming administration, and also serve as a reminder for those long involved in this area.

1. Government Acquisition Involves a Series of Trade-offs

Whether it’s price versus performance, government-tailored requirements versus commercial off-the-shelf, or supporting the mission versus other competing national goals, government acquisition today involves an important series of trade-offs. For example, government acquisition is used to deliver products and services to support everything from warfighting, space exploration, health care, law enforcement, research, etc. Simultaneously, it’s used for all manner of national social and economic policy implementation, such as generating jobs, promoting small business, assisting our nation’s veterans, aiding disadvantaged geographical locations, etc.

2. Government Acquisition Has the Upmost Integrity

Our nation’s acquisition process does not face the corruption that plagues many other nations.

3. Government Acquisition is burdened with the Legacies of Previous Acquisition Reform Efforts

These initiatives are ongoing, often simultaneous, and (in many instances) at cross purposes of each other, resulting in increased complexity — not dissimilar to the tax code.

4. Government Acquisition is Responsive during Crises

When a product, service, or system is absolutely required resulting from real, urgent, and compelling government needs, the acquisition system can and should perform quickly and as intended.

5. Government Acquisition Has Been on the Decline for Several Years

Following a build-up resulting from the War on Terror and increased outsourcing efforts, dollars available for acquisition have been on the decline for the past six years. Companies have folded or merged, staffing has declined, and budgets are more uncertain than ever.

6. Poor Requirements Result in Poor Acquisitions

There is a need to more widely focus on how and who develops government requirements and less on the contracting officers and the

Federal Acquisition Regulation

(

FAR

). Focus reform on the beginning of the process, not the end.

7. Government Acquisition is Adaptable

We must recognize that with outsourcing already here (not coming), agency culture must better adapt to managing private contractors within their workforces, instead of leaving things to an under-resourced contracting office or perhaps non-existent program management office.

8. There are Already Several Initiatives Underway to Improve Government Acquisition Outcomes

This year’s 1,500-page NDAA only serves to make the problem worse. The Department of Defense’s “Section 809 Panel” may have the best chance to generate meaningful ideas, as it is comprised of those who worked within government acquisition, and understand how the multiple statutes, regulations, internal directives, political drivers, and various workforce communities and culture all interact to comprise today’s system.

9. Government Acquisition can be improved, but it will take Commitment

Top agency leadership and administration officials must be directly involved. If the proverbial “buck” is passed to others further down the line, as has historically been the case, the same results will be realized.

“To add value to others, one must first value others.” — John Maxwell

Like most other endeavors, leadership is key to acquisition success. Whether at the very top or one or more layers down, solid leadership in acquisition takes personal responsibility, sets mission-oriented goals, and shows the way to how they may be best achieved. How all of this will be accomplished is as important as what is accomplished. Let’s trust incoming leadership to do the same.

Michael P. Fischetti is the executive director of the National Contract Management Association. 

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and America’s third-ranking diplomat, Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, will serve as acting chiefs of their agencies until successors for the top jobs are confirmed by the Senate, Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer said.

Also staying will be Brett McGurk, the Obama administration’s special representative for the fight against the Islamic State group, and Nicholas Rasmussen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Trump also is keeping Adam Szubin, the Treasury Department’s top official for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Work will likely man the ship for only a matter of hours. Trump’s selection for the Pentagon, retired Gen. James Mattis, is expected to be confirmed on Friday shortly after the inauguration ceremony.

Shannon is expected to run the State Department at least until next week. A Senate vote on Trump’s choice to succeed John Kerry as secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, isn’t expected until Monday or Tuesday.

On the diplomatic front, it was not immediately clear if the Trump administration would accept an invitation to attend Russian-supported Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Monday.

Trump has made a great point about seeking closer cooperation with Moscow on counterterrorism and security matters. Obama’s special envoy for Syria, Michael Ratney, has indicated he is willing to attend, but the transition team hadn’t instructed him to make the trip.

As in previous transitions, U.S. embassies and consulates abroad headed by non-career, presidential appointee ambassadors will transfer to the most senior career diplomat present until the new administration fills the top posts.

How crowds are counted

Before it stopped, the park service came up with its crowd figures by studying aerial photographs. Using a grid system, the park service would divide the Mall into sections of equal square footage. Then it counted the number of people in each section of the grid by looking at how tightly packed the crowd was and assigning a number of people per square foot.

Not much has changed since regarding the way crowds are estimated, said Steve Doig, a journalism professor at Arizona State University who specializes in measuring crowd sizes.

The figure that corresponds to a “loosely packed crowd,” Doig said, is 10 square feet per person, “which sounds like a lot but it’s really not.” That means people could reach out and touch those closest to them on all sides.

“A tighter crowd would get down to maybe 6 or 7 square feet per person,” he said. “A scary mosh pit crowd would be maybe 3 to 4 at most.”

Crowd estimates for events in Washington are difficult in general because the city’s lack of tall buildings and security restrictions on aircraft make it tough to get comprehensive aerial images, Doig said.

Christopher Geldart, the District of Columbia’s homeland security director, has said consistently that he expects between 800,000 and 900,000 people to attend Trump’s inauguration. He said he would use the tried-and-true grid method to provide his own crowd estimate on the Monday after the swearing-in.

Women’s March

The largest-ever demonstration in Washington, according to park service figures, was an anti-Vietnam War protest in 1969 that drew 600,000 people. The Mall can easily accommodate crowds in the hundreds of thousands; between 300,000 and 400,000 regularly attend the July Fourth fireworks.

Organizers of Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington have received a permit from D.C. police for a gathering of 200,000 people. Geldart said he expects the number of participants to exceed that figure, based on data including bus, hotel and train bookings. He cautioned, however, that organizers have not yet told authorities to expect more than the permitted total.

Past inaugurations

The park service did not dispute a widely reported estimate that 1.8 million people came to Washington for President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, believed to be the largest inaugural crowd in history. The biggest crowd the park service counted at an inauguration was 1.2 million for Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 swearing-in.

Doig isn’t sure about either of those figures. His analysis of aerial photographs led him to conclude that just 800,000 were on the Mall for Obama’s first inauguration, though he did not include the parade route, where thousands more people waited all day to catch a glimpse of America’s first black president.

The estimate was difficult because the density of the crowd varied widely, he said, despite aerial photographs that appeared to show the Mall full of people between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. Further away from the Capitol, people huddled around television monitors, leaving big tracts of mostly empty space.

Any time a crowd reaches into the hundreds of thousands, it’s a noteworthy gathering, Doig said, but boosters will always try to politicize the turnout for their chosen cause.

“One of the things that aggravates me … is the need for it to be huge,” he said. “It sort of drives the numbers into areas where it just clearly is fiction and it undercuts the reality of what really is an amazing crowd.”

The new guidance lays out the policies, processes and restrictions for onboarding the temporary appointments while the permanent nominees await Senate confirmation. The TTC appointments run 120 days and can be renewed for a single additional term without OPM approval.

In addition to the TTC appointments, non-career and limited-term Senior Executive Service appointment authorities may also select executives to ensure agencies can carry out their required functions.

“To support the transition of the incoming administration, OPM is delegating a temporary allocation of up to five Noncareer SES appointment authorities to all Cabinet level agencies and an allocation of up to three NC SES appointment authorities to all non-Cabinet level agencies (subject to the 25 percent or other applicable limit on noncareer appointments in the agency), each of which may be used for the time-limited Noncareer appointment of an individual previously identified by the incoming administration to an SES General position,” said acting OPM Director Beth Cobert in a memo explaining the guidance.

“The purpose for these authorities is to support efficiency in establishing agency programs and to enable agencies to begin the pre-appointment background investigation process for these appointees. OPM may grant additional NC SES appointment authorities on a case-by-case basis upon request.”

Agencies have a 10-day window to appoint non-career SES members, starting on Jan. 20, and can run for a 21-day term, after which OPM can approve an extension.

For more information on the TTC and non-career SES appointments,

.

Presidential transitions are seen as critical times of national security vulnerability, so the speed and thoroughness with which they are completed are important.

That has meant more critique of the Trump transition team, who has appointed several cabinet secretaries, but still has to fill roles like Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as well as key management positions at the agency level.

“The people who are in charge of the actual operations of most of the federal government’s agencies have not be named or are not in place,” said Don Kettl, professor and former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, on Dec. 28.

“So that the people who are in charge of the connection between the new West Wing and the actual government operations are not there yet.”

Kettl said that filling the deputy secretaries and other support roles will be critical to ensuring operational continuity of government and implementing the political agenda of the new administration, but a lag in appointments could hamstring that process.

“It means that being able to ground the new administration to the actual operations of the government is being delayed, and that’s only going to increase the tensions not only in the next three weeks, but in the difficulty of trying to get a handle on the government once Jan. 20 comes.”

But the Trump team is also converging at a time where presidential transitions have never before seen such preparation before assuming office.

Both Trump and then-opponent Hillary Clinton sent their transition teams to Washington in August, as the first official use of the Edward “Ted” Kaufman and Michael Leavitt Presidential Transitions Improvements Act of 2015, which passed into law in March.

The law codifies that the current administration begins planning the transfer of power no later than six months prior to Inauguration Day.

Eagles said that given that Trump has had preparation time that other candidates have not, the verdict is still out as to whether the transition is moving fast enough.

“From a pace standpoint, it’s still too early,” he said. “At inauguration [in 2009], President Obama had confirmed seven cabinet officials, President Bush had confirmed seven [in 2000]. Prior to that, you are seeing anywhere in the ample range of five to seven officials; that’s the historical norm,” he said.

“Where we stand today, I believe it’s something like 18 of the 21 cabinet officials have been named, but there’s still a long road to go between naming and confirming.”

Eagles said that success for the Trump transition will mean having the top 100 administration positions in place by Jan. 20, but either way, it will lean heavily on the career workforce.

“I think one of the biggest mistakes these incoming teams can do is ignore the federal workforce,” he said. “You really have to engage them on the first day. Because whether you want government big or small, you want it to work well. And it’s really those federal employees that ensure that the agency does work well.”

Despite efforts to walk back those sentiments following a phone conversation between Trump and President Barack Obama that same day, there is speculation that after witnessing one of the better transitions in modern presidential history in 2009, the current inauguration may be one of the most contentious on record.

“It’s really hard to change direction once things start rocketing down the road they are on now,” said Don Kettl, professor and former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. “It’s clear that the two teams don’t like each other much. It’s also clear that within the Trump transition team that teamwork is at a premium.

“There are a lot of dissenting views with people fighting for oxygen and fighting for access. So both the incoming Trump team’s ability to speak as a team and the ability of that team to interact with outgoing Obama people, that seems likely to get worse for a while.”

But as exhaustive research on presidential transitions by both the Partnership for Public Service and the National Academy of Public Administration have shown, there’s little time for communication breakdowns between administrations.

Starting more than a year out from the upcoming inauguration, both think tanks produced a series of research papers and roundtables with former administration officials to game-plan what a smooth transition of power would look like, in part because of the vulnerability such a transition creates for the country.

“Both the incoming and outgoing administrations must steadfastly commit to making the transfer of power not only peaceful but also effective,” Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, told Federal Times in an email.

“This is a time of high vulnerability for our nation and in a post-9/11 world, the national security imperative requires the utmost cooperation and effort on both sides of the transfer to strengthen and uphold this cornerstone to our democracy,” Stier said.

Speaking at the opening of the Partnership’s Center for Presidential Transition on Jan. 20, 2016, former George W. Bush Chief of Staff Josh Bolten detailed how officials from the outgoing administration worked hand in hand with new Obama appointees to effectively navigate a credible terror threat while the inauguration was unfolding.

“The night before the inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security picked up credible threat information about an intended attack on the inauguration festivities themselves,” he said.

“[We were] trying to figure out how to best do the handoff and especially how to prepare the incoming team for a situation in which they might face a national security crisis and an attack on the homeland not just in Year One, in Hour One.”

With the legal authority of Bush’s Department of Homeland Security set to expire at noon, a potential attack could have put the new Obama administration into a crisis situation before much of the Cabinet had even moved into its offices.

By 10 a.m., Bolten had brought incoming Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to a joint briefing, and both Homeland Security teams had gathered together in a command center to assess the nature of the threat.

“We had arranged with the Obama administration to sit side by side the day before and the day of the transition, even though the Constitution was clear on who actually makes the call to try and assist each other,” Bolten said. “The threat turned out not to be real, but the intelligence was pretty serious.

“The point of the story is that there was no template for this. We were making it up as we went along.”

While contentious presidential transitions have happened before — including a truncated timetable following Bush’s 2000 win — there hasn’t been one since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, creating a new paradigm that emphasizes the importance of cooperation.

“The world is just much more interconnected than it’s ever been,” Kettl said. “That means everything from perhaps less obvious having to do with the financial system to the obvious questions about both homeland security and international security. The risks and the costs of missteps are far higher than they have ever been before.”