President-Elect Biden To Begin Formal Transition Process After Agency OK

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President-elect Joe Biden speaks during a virtual meeting with the United States Conference of Mayors on Monday.

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GSA Administrator Emily Murphy had been blocking President-elect Joe Biden from receiving government funds and office space to begin his transition.

Susan Walsh/AP

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Susan Walsh/AP

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«Today’s decision is a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track,» Biden-Harris transition Executive Director Yohannes Abraham said in a statement. «This final decision is a definitive administrative action to formally begin the transition process with federal agencies. In the days ahead, transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests, and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration’s efforts to hollow out government agencies.»

Under the 1963 Presidential Transition Act, it was up to Murphy as head of the GSA, the federal agency that acts as a leasing agent for the government, to make the ascertainment, though the law is vague about the criteria that should be used.

The GSA had cited the precedent set by the 2000 election, in which Republican George W. Bush wasn’t declared the winner over Democrat Al Gore until the Supreme Court ruled in Bush’s favor in a dispute over recounting Florida’s ballots. The margin then was just 537 votes, a far narrower outcome than Biden’s win over Trump.

That shortened transition period was cited by the 9-11 Commission as a factor in al-Qaida’s attacks in September 2001, because of the time it took Bush to get his national security team in place.

The GSA decision was Monday’s second major blow to Trump’s effort to overturn the election result. Earlier in the day, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers voted to certify Biden’s win there. The typically ministerial duty had become a national focal point as Trump and his allies launched a failed effort to either delay certification or install Trump loyalists in the place of electors who would vote for Biden.

The decision to certify the outcome was 3 to 0, with one abstention vote.