© 2025
In touch with the world ... at home on the High Plains
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
We recently completed the changeover to a new, much improved audio management system, including a new program scheduling computer, file servers, workstations and more secure and reliable IT networking between our studios in Garden City and Amarillo. This work involved thousands of audio files and lines of programming code, so you may hear some glitches in our programming as we "burn-in" the system in the coming days. We apologize for any disruptions to your listening. If you have questions or problems to report, please contact HPPR's Technical Director, Alex Fregger (afregger@hppr.org).

KJJJP-FM 105.7 in Amarillo is currently operating at 10% power due to problems with its main transmitter. Engineers are currently working to resolve the problem. If you listen to 105.7 FM and are experiencing reception problems, you can always listen to its programming through the streaming player above.

Trump team signs an agreement with the DOJ for security clearances

The J. Edgar Hoover building — Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters — is photographed on Oct. 8, 2024.
Kent Nishimura
/
Getty Images
The J. Edgar Hoover building — Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters — is photographed on Oct. 8, 2024.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Trump transition team said it can begin submitting names of officials and nominees for background checks and security clearances after it signed an agreement with the Justice Department.

The FBI plays a key role in the transition from one administration to the next, conducting background checks and processing security clearances for intended nominees and the transition officials, known as landing teams, who go into agencies before the inauguration to get ready.

"Ultimately, this will afford the transition process additional insights, and it facilitates our agency landing teams gaining access to the information they need to prepare for leadership of the federal agencies and departments," the transition team said in a statement.

The transition team missed an Oct. 1 deadline to sign an agreement with the White House to provide for landing teams to begin meeting with departments and agencies. It ultimately signed that agreement on Nov. 26. But team members need security clearances to gain access to classified information.

The delays in signing the memoranda of understanding had raised concerns that the Trump team would bypass FBI background checks that have long been a requirement for Senate confirmations.

President-elect Donald Trump hasn't been shy about his distrust of the Justice Department and the FBI. He's already announced his pick for FBI director, indicating he plans to fire the current head.

The transition team opted against signing a third agreement with the General Services Administration (GSA) that would provide funding, office space and technology. That agreement would have required an ethics agreement.

Instead, the Trump team said it would use "an existing ethics plan" for its team, and agreed to post it on the GSA website.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Tamara Keith has been a White House correspondent for NPR since 2014 and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast, the top political news podcast in America. Keith has chronicled the Trump administration from day one, putting this unorthodox presidency in context for NPR listeners, from early morning tweets to executive orders and investigations. She covered the final two years of the Obama presidency, and during the 2016 presidential campaign she was assigned to cover Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Keith was elected to serve on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.