Obama-Biden Transition names Agency Review Teams

On Friday, the Obama-Biden Transition Team announced a broad list of Agency Review Team leads that will complete a thorough review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government, as well as the White House, to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisors with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration. The list includes teams that will review the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Commerce, and the Department of Agriculture. The teams will begin their efforts today, and will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in.

In Communicationsville, the big news is that Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach will head the Federal Communications Commission transition team. Crawford is a professor of law at the University of Michigan, teaching communications law and Internet law. She was a partner with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) until the end of 2002, when she left to become a legal academic. Crawford recently ended her term as a member of the board of directors of ICANN. Werbach is an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and the organizer of the annual Supernova technology conference. His research explores the legal and business dynamics of information and communications technologies. During the Clinton Administration, he served as counsel for new technology policy at the FCC.

Benton Foundation board member and former FCC Commissioner Henry Rivera was rumored to head this team, instead he is leading the team assigned to look at the National Science Foundation. Benton Foundation Senior Fellow Jim Kohlenberger is the co-leader on that team.