NEW: The federal government has finally released an obscure 232-page government document central to the Biden administration's efforts to get its team in place by Inauguration Day. It's called the Plum Book. by @rbravender ($) in @Politicsinsider ow.ly/kd8950CZUBy
For some reason this is what kept going through my mind while editing the story: images.app.goo.gl/4FnEoeXYX8V58E…
On a more serious note, the Plum Book, as it's unofficially called, contains details about the roughly 9,000 coveted leadership jobs in the US government.
It normally arrives by early December of a presidential election year, just in time for the incoming White House team.
It normally arrives by early December of a presidential election year, just in time for the incoming White House team.
But the new version was several weeks late b/c of "technical questions" that the congressional publishing office raised w/ the Trump administration agency responsible for managing the federal government's workforce, according to a House Democratic aide familiar with the process.
Biden's transition team is looking to the Plum Book because it details some 4,000 executive branch political appointees from the Trump administration who are likely to be replaced in the government handover.
For starters, it gives the new administration a look at where Trump appointees are working in the government. That could be particularly important if the outgoing Trump team doesn't take the customary step of asking political appointees to resign before Biden is sworn in.
As regular readers of my twitter & @Politicsinsider may recall, some people in Biden's orbit are worried Trump will force Biden to purge the outgoing commander in chief's political appointees who don't resign by Inauguration Day.
The Plum Book is also the most detailed look the public gets into who is working where inside the executive branch. Some of those details are posted on agency websites, but names and titles of political appointees across federal agencies aren't always posted publicly.
Anyone looking for a job in Biden's administration will also want to scour the document. Federal hiring experts told Insider recently that the Plum Book should be job applicants' first stop so they can be specific about which positions they're angling for.
"It's become the equivalent of the bible for understanding what the landscape is for political jobs in government," said Max Stier, president and CEO of the good government organization Partnership for Public Service.
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