Absent a major Electoral College landslide for former Vice President Joe Biden
Joe BidenBiden pulls ahead of Trump in Georgia Biden takes lead in Georgia, makes gains in Pennsylvania Gore: This election is ‘completely different’ than 2000 MORE, the Trump campaign is challenging the election results on multiple fronts. Donald Trump
Donald John TrumpBiden pulls ahead of Trump in Georgia Biden takes lead in Georgia, makes gains in Pennsylvania Gore: This election is ‘completely different’ than 2000 MORE will not concede the election, so forget about a peaceful transition. The country should expect protracted litigation until inauguration day. It would be a surprise if the Trump administration leaves on Jan. 20 with any transition preparation. Why should we expect him to not burn down the federal government on his way out? Why would he help President Biden in leading the nation?
The transition from one administration to the next takes months under the best managed administration. In the fall of 2016, President Obama instructed his executive branch to prepare for a smooth transition for the next president, be that Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton. We were instructed to prepare extensive material and meet with the incoming administration’s transition teams to ensure that the vital missions of each agency would be uninterrupted. Transparency and openness where mandated. Biden, on the other hand, should be planning for a completely incompetent Trump transition.
The U.S. faces multiple once-in-a-generation crises: pandemic, recession, racial injustice and climate change. Tackling these challenges requires that the new administration hit the ground running. Complicating the transition, however, will be Trump’s decimation of government leadership, both career and political. The country cannot afford squandering 2021 waiting for executive branch leaders getting up to speed. Dedicated career professionals that have lasted through the administration need political leaders to help enable rebuilding the government.
The current list of crises overshadows many other critical issues that need to be quickly addressed, such as the declining level of U.S. innovation relative to other countries. Five years ago, China announced its Made in China 2025 plan to dominate the pharmaceutical, automotive, aerospace, semiconductor, IT and robotics industries. While this has led to an increase in Intellectual Property (IP) theft from U.S. companies, it has also resulted in Chinese inventors filing more patent applications around the world than any nationality.
To beat China, the U.S. must invest in our own long-term aggressive national innovation plan. The plan can be focused on future technologies needed to address health care and climate change but needs to be comprehensive across the whole executive branch. Every agency needs to be driving to improve STEM and vocational education, apprenticeships, traditional and digital infrastructure, private-government collaborations, and small business incentives, to name a few.
In 2016 Joe Biden championed the Cancer Moonshot and recognized that the goals of the Moonshot could not “be achieved by one person, one organization, one discipline, or even one collective approach.” As part of its contribution, the United States Patent and Trademark Office made vast amounts of data available to cancer researchers and created a fast-track review for cancer immunotherapy-related patent applications. In addition to its core missions, the USPTO plays a significant role in supporting U.S. innovation and education. These resources combined with the entire executive branch should be used to rapidly move U.S. completeness forward. This same multi-agency approach can be used to address our innovation deficit, but we need a functioning government first with experienced capable leaders.
The Trump administration will leave behind a hollowed-out dysfunctional government run by “acting” leaders. President Biden should look to add leaders to his team, across the entire executive branch, that already know how each agency operates, can quickly begin to reverse Trump’s damage and, most importantly, believes in the mission of their agency.
Russell Slifer is the former Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.