Trump transition nearly a month behind on key policy prep

The Trump transition signed an agreement Nov. 26 paving the way for those “landing teams” to begin work in the agencies.

That puts Trump officials nearly a month behind their recent predecessors, who began what is known as the “agency review” process.

Few of the president-elect’s nominees to lead the agencies have any experience in government.

Health officials and outside experts fear the lack of preparation could mean a slow or inadequate response to future health crises that put the general public in danger.

Trump is poised to enter office in January amid a troubling outbreak of bird flu that public health experts worry could quickly balloon into a threat to the food supply or the general population.

Trump ’s penchant for bucking the usual transition processes isn’t new.

“They just have to sit on their hands and 5 million people will lose their insurance and you more than 15 million others would be bankrupt, possibly, by their health insurance premiums,” he said.

“You can shorten open enrollment, eliminate the special enrollment period, shut down the call centers over the weekends , like they've done before, and all of a sudden you would lower the number of people with health insurance dramatically.”.