Republican senator and business leaders pressing for prompt Biden transition
Joe Biden Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Pressure is increasing on a Trump administration official to authorise a formal transition process for president-elect Joe Biden.
Republican senator Rob Portman called for the head of the General Services Administration to release money and staffing needed for the transition.
Mr Portman, a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also said Mr Biden should receive high-level briefings on national security and the coronavirus vaccine distribution plan.
More than 160 business leaders asked GSA chief Emily Murphy to immediately acknowledge Mr Biden as president-elect and begin the transition to a new administration.
“Withholding resources and vital information from an incoming administration puts the public and economic health and security of America at risk,” the business letters said in an open letter to Ms Murphy.
Among those signing the letter were Jon Gray, president of the Blackstone private equity firm; Robert Bakish, president and CEO of ViacomCBS; Henry Kravis, co-chief executive of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, another private equity giant; David Solomon, CEO at Goldman Sachs; and George H Walker, CEO of the investment firm Neuberger Berman and a second cousin to former president George W Bush.
The renewed calls for an official transition came as Mr Biden was building his administration with key picks for national security and foreign policy roles.
Former secretary of state John Kerry will lead the incoming administration’s effort to combat climate change, while Alejandro Mayorkas will be nominated as Homeland Security secretary.
Mr Biden also plans to nominate veteran diplomat Antony Blinken as his secretary of state, according to multiple sources.
House Democrats said in a letter to Ms Murphy last week that her refusal to begin transition activities required by law was having “grave effects”.
Those effects include “undermining the orderly transfer of power, impairing the incoming administration’s ability to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, hampering its ability to address our nation’s dire economic crisis, and endangering our national security”.
Two House committees, Oversight and Appropriations, are seeking an immediate briefing with Ms Murphy to help legislators decide whether to call Ms Murphy and other officials to give evidence at a public hearing.
Ms Murphy, who was appointed by Donald Trump, has yet to certify Mr Biden as the winner of the presidential election, stalling the process of officially launching the transition.
Mr Trump has publicly refused to accept defeat and has launched a series of court battles across the country making baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and seeking to overturn the election results.
Mr Portman, a Trump ally, said it was “only prudent” for the GSA to begin the transition process immediately.
“Donald Trump is our president until January 20 2021, but in the likely event that Joe Biden becomes our next president, it is in the national interest that the transition is seamless and that America is ready on day one of a new administration for the challenges we face,” he wrote.
When Ms Murphy agrees that Mr Biden won, it will free up money for the transition and clear the way for his team to begin placing transition personnel at federal agencies.
Trump administration officials also say they will not give Mr Biden the classified presidential daily briefing on intelligence matters until the GSA makes the ascertainment official.
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