Former president obama come alive today at 11 30 a. M. Eastern time on book tv. Tonight on the communicators withke a look at issues the president and ceo of aca connects, and boy, vision president. It our members have done a the needsof serving of americans, connected with so many of our members stepping up to adopt the pledge to keep americans connected. We have also recognized that there are still continuing needs to serve students, to work with withls, a need to work hospitals and medical facility so we can improve telehealth, ways to increase the Broadband Network watch tonight 8 00 eastern on cspan 2. Host joining us is Michael Health and Human Services secretary in george former inistration and utah governor republican from 2003. To you have worn many hats and one is also helping a campaign for a transition. You did that for mitt roll think. He didnt win the election but explain the process for when the campaigns start thinking about a possible transition of hour. It is an interesting history. Real 2010 there was no legal requirement for the ampaigns to prepare and in twe2010 the president ial transition act assed and it provided it was not just something they could do ut a responsibility of candidates who were representing ajor parties to organize transitions. So transitioning generally start summer by mayril, because theres too much to do in the izing the days ment to do it in 75 between the election and august ration. O it is a surprisingly sophisticated, can be, operation and large. What does it entail . Guest there are really four responsibilities. To put a o prepare team on the field, to organize a cabinet to staff, fill the first couple hundred and important apoisoned Senate Confirmed posts. They have to be cleared so etting a running start is important. Second is to prepare the first of the 00 days administration to fulfill the that the romises candidate represented to the public. That actually gets down to writing executive orders, and so g legislation forth. Hird is to begin to organize the departments to be able to igin to think through how you want act with congress. Lastly, is with we are seeing president elect today where he is supported by ssentially his transition because the white house staff do not exist and they dont have or trappings or facilities any of the normal organization. Things e the four major the transition does. Host how much money has been we just in this and read for our viewers the the ine that president elect is crowd funding raising ition cost already 10 million. Guest the transition between begins in the spring until they become the residentelect is funded through private sources. It is regulated if you will by g. S. A. , General Services administration. For a maximum of 5,000 any one person and i think the iden transition raised about 10 million prior to the election. Is an he election there s proposition of money that is made. Dont know exactly what it is today. I think it changed over time. Hen i was organizing a transition it was about 6 million. Likely more than this now the but upon successful certify tanment they are to transfer it. Because the g. S. A. Has not the former Vice President and now as the telect successful candidate that money is not happening and they are public to n the fulfill it and im confident they are raising lots of money. You headed up the Transition Team for then president ial mitt romney and wrote about that experience. What were the Lessons Learned . There were a lot of them because the truth is that a had never been organized under the 2010 transition act prior to 2012. So up to that point most been done in a much less formal way. After 2010, beginning 2012 government space for example was allotted. Computer and technology. Access to federal agencies. The bock goes through the process that wae came to by actually executing the law. Of technical issues raised there but mostly it is how can you organize stand up the federal government in advance so that when you hit the ground you running. It is a real relay as opposed to hard stop to hand the baton off. If you had walked down the halls of our transition you would see department of state. Department of interior, department of treasury and there ould be people in the Transition Office the that orked there before and understood the lay of the land and how it works and you create government in miniature that you can get a running start. Ost we want to take your comments and questions about the transition of power. Overnor Michael Leavitt is our guest. You you live in the eastern part of the here are the numbers you can call. 2027488000 we are also talking about the mpact of this delay on the covid19 pandemic response. Edical provider year health and Human Services secretary hat on as problems couldof his delay present for responding to the pandemic, whether that is distribution of other areas . Guest i think the area people concerned most about would e the handoff of the vaccine distributi distribution. I think it would be vastly direct f there was cooperation between the teams. Think that is a big part of meaning the outgoing and incoming administration. We ought not to see it as a complete collapse. If youre a mechanical providered a looking for that to come, i still think were of that will happen. I think there is a quit sophisticated operation that by private ucted sector vendors and im talking about big medical distributors going to every clinic, doctors ital, every office on a regular basis to deliver this. I want to emphasize i think it would be better if there was conversation but im contractorsat those are having contact with the biden team and theres going to at least a degree of assistance they will provide. Host alan in hawaii, you are up first. Morning, a long time since i have called in and gotten your voice. Tangents that maybe michael can help us with. One is about a doctor that i you should get on named article inust had an Time Magazine and well known for a is a big proponent whole group of rapid antigen tests. The government to produce them person a bunch to each and they are almost look pregnancy tests where you can or he is he is an epidemiologist and use them least twice a day for every person and get them out to 50 population and statistically on the studies infection one the would decline, the transmission would decline rapidly. Question. Art one of my part two is you need to get Alan Dershowitz because he wrote a on the internet and it is called trumps only road which is basically hes actually expressing the trump has an actual strategy behind what he is doing that is he is not intending electors to get to the Electoral College and for a situation that happened he said twice in the the most ry which was thing dershowitz used is the b. Hayes electoral house ere they were the of representatives. I know that maybe outside the set but i think that is why it would be get him on to elaborate. Governor, do you havity thoughts on that . He is first e alan question with respect to testing, testing is an evolving increasingly sophisticated and increasingly and easy and inexpensive. We have seen that happen already we have to continue it. What he describes is what many flow efer to as a lateral test 2 is inexpensive and he test where pregnancy the dilemma we are having with antigen tests generally is they proven to be as accurate and there are lots of tests and i dont mean to characterize them all. Testing, abundant testing will make it a lot better. m thinking of a little outing my family has for christmas and would not it be great if i had to have a home test and everybody tested every morning. Thing. S a good if you could get it down to a dollar or two it would be worth helpful. As for with respect to the Electoral College was an elector and know the process reasonably dont d may i say i personally see any particular effort for the trump that can succeed. Speaking candidly i find that if we were to kiss we were to disrupt that that was not reflect christopher of what happened in at the ballot box i think that would be a disruption american cal institution. Nd so we are all seeing it unfold and i feel quite confident it will work its way out. Host do you think the president should concede . Guest well, i think the right nt does have every to pursue whatever remedy that s available under the law and concession that is basically a a legal is not proposition. I do think it would be were etter if he did transition activities and whatever process he is going to go through simultaneously. They couldnt on coexist. Host brian in organize. Yes. R host go ahead. Through your k phone. You have to turn the television down. Just a second. Host go ahead, please. Im a republican and i am a little disheartened by acting this way with joe biden and not allowing he is nsition because putting our country in danger and joe biden within the people voted, they voted him in. I voted for trump. We lost. Think that hes to be responsible and allow this transition to proceed because it at danger ur country and he is continuing on these, in these courts and theres to path for him to win. Over. All so i dont understand why he ust proceed and let joe biden have his transition. Tkpwhost let me go to nancy in houston. Caller hi. I have been following the and with like to invest different vaccines and i was listening to the news and there were saying that the hard tion may not be as because of the corps of engineers are the ones that will be working on that. It is not going to be bad. Cted as is that true . Guest im not aware of the role corps of engineers would play. It is possible, i suppose, that certain ld be government assets. There was a time when i think there was discussion of having involved in the distribution. I think what they are going to is theresready have already an infrastructure in vaccine. Distribute the they are called distributors and like ameris panies or mckesson or Cardinal Health ho every day send trucks full f supplies, they are the part of the supply chain that goes from a warehouse right into the hospital. Ner office or they are doing that every day now. So i think they are going to to say letseffort use that existing distribution. The natural way and most effective way in my own they nt and i think that have doubtedly had those contracts in place for quite a while. You also led the development of a federal plan after these 2005 avian flu outbreak. You learn . Guest the first thing we learned is we were not very well prepared. We didnt have sufficient vaccine manufacturing capacity. Of our capacity was on contracts that were outside the United States. Can see the danger of that now if the only place we could et manufacturing done was outside the u. S. It would be danger that the countries who somehow want ght the vaccine before it got to the states. So, we went to congress and said a pandemic will happen. Maybe it one or another one. Not well es we are prepared and congress appropriated 8 billion. Was a good piece of insight by president bush. We spent a lot of time and effort developing what is now the National Pandemic plan. It has been changed and enhanced that occurred. But much of what has happened i of that a reflection work. Host what is in place to this current pandemic that you saw that you outlined 2005 . R work in guest i mentioned the vaccine capacity. Ring we are now seeing the benefit of that. And or ot done that things that have affected it, echnology effected it with the way they manufacture it and type a virus this is, but we put lot of emphasis and work on having the capacity to manufacture vaccines and we had will be a modern miracle in being able to see manufactured, developed, tested, manufactured, remarkable, a a remarkably short period of time. A lot of effort developing a new york of labors virus the world so if a develops we are able to gain ccess it vaccine and the virus and develop a vaccine. We spent a lot of energy focused local Public Health capacity. Ould i just say this is a really big problem that has been pandemic. By our Public Health infrastructure over the course of time has been go to seed and we have not invested in Public Health infrastructure and had revealed and we are seeing why that is so important. We spent a lot of feels focused that. But it has to be on going ongoing. Then not e invest and invest. If there is a lesson we can to 2000 it is we this kind of emergency, have to treat it like an insurance policy. Ou dont make a claim every year but you need to invest over and over so when these things to en you have the capacity respond. Host what kind of investments re needed 1234 guest well, again, i think vaccine manufacturing continue , we need it to do that. To continue to invest in it. The type of virus it can be a bigger problem but public nts in who will health. What has occurred is as up thcare costs have gone state legislatures will the Public Health y is not a federal issue. It is a concern but it is not an issue that is controlled by the congress on appropriating states. To but when it comes down to it, assets are in local and state governments and multiple decades we have invested more in people G Health Care it who are already sick and less in or Public Health that will happen people stay healthy. Jumps in k at the big our believe health, they came and 1980s 970s when we were cleaning the air, the water and 4r57bd. The s i ran Environmental Protection agency at one time and what i learned that it was a Public Health issue agency. Is all about cleaning air, leaning water and increasing human health. I think the agency is going to its 50th ting anniversary next week. That is what i learned. Judy in lawrence, massachusetts. Caller good morning. Donald trump do not want to concede for the system fact that back a while back when there were doing the investigation on mueller case they said there were going to indict im when he becomes a normal citizen and he is afraid to leave the white house because he nows he is going to be indicted. Host we will go to susan in florida. S, caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. A couple of points. I will get to the covid but first of all i would like to all the politicians from local all the way up to the court, ouse and supreme they are all employees, not employers. The money that they utilityize and throw here and there doesnt them. To it belongs to we the people who taxes. L and who pay their wages. As far as the covid goes, was around for the poll yo vaccine as a kid. Grew up in alleys of the was of cleveland, ohio. They used us as experiments. Lined up one day and parent didnt know. We got injected. Knew why. And the other thing that you understand is that this does not happen overnight and people who do not believe in it at least wearing a mask and requests for basic social distancing, hand washing, things, these are common sense and people who dont believe in science. Have the governor jump in. Made some very good points. One is that everyone who is in need to beice we all remi reminded, im a former public exactly what we were and are, public servants. The need for us as citizens to keep the basic comes down to it government can do many things fighting thiss in pandemic will boil down to our willingness as individuals to do the things that necessary to fight this virus. Host john in beaverton, oregon. Just had a philosophical statement and question. To me it is a transfer of power and to serve. Governor leavitt what fact will this have on agencies it meet their missions and serve the public . Guest i think that the most problem that not having access to the agencys is than Relationship Issue it is an actual legal or honor jest calendar issue. Any time theres an administration change the people day to the departments day have apprehensions and they in t know what will happen hange and theres a lot of settling that happens when a group of human beings come and eye andlook them in the it is on both side. There are those who are going to the transition referred to as the landing team and begin ely when they access they are going to find out that these are human beings do the same and takes it out of the political practical. In more that is an important part. Louise in vincent, ohio. Wondering how common is it for senators to joined the ey just for the vaccine and i thought that was interesting because it seemed to it was proven that efficacy. 95 and how common is that . Talking about e distribution and im a senior underlooking ve conditions and i would love to have the vaccine right away. That common for senators to trials after nothing how effective they are . Im not war of any direct report that you are referencing comment more generally. I think it willance your question. One of the important things the federal government must do in distribution of vaccine is determine how to prioritize a limited supply. Now, we are going to be manufacturing hundreds of among the doses various manufacturers, i think. Who gets it first 1234 first . It is pretty evident that the hooker oup are the Health Care Workers who are putting themselves in harms way those who t care for are ill and need help. The next group will likely be people who are in categories and you would be one of them if you have an Underlying Health condition and at an age where you ould i think that would be among the second group of those two to receive t. So help is on way. But i would also say that there groups who have special significance. Again im not i dont know of any particular thing that rompted your comment but it would be a veried about thing for the United States if a the united ng for states if congress could not unction because of a pandemic so it is not surprising that you might look for key government whose performance is required to make the care to all oal of us of us. That is possible where that could be. Disciplined well set of priorities on how that vaccine will be administered. Will go hink it perfectly. People will be but it will happen in phases. Host issues referring to led lines like this steve gains senator from month has covid19 antibodies after pfizer ating in a typhoon trial. I think so i saw rob portman as well. Im