GSA Chief Rebuffs Democrats’ Demand for Transition Briefing

(Bloomberg) -- The head of the General Services Administration is bucking House Democrats’ demands for an in-person briefing Monday to explain her blocking of transition resources for President-elect Joe Biden.

The agency’s offer to instead hold a 30-minute briefing next week with a deputy administrator didn’t satisfy committee leaders who warned that continued delays threaten national security and hamper the incoming Biden administration’s pandemic response planning. They now are insisting on a session Tuesday and gave GSA Administrator Emily W. Murphy until 5 p.m. Monday to respond.

“We cannot wait yet another week to obtain basic information about your refusal to make the ascertainment determination,” Representatives Mike Quigley of Illinois, Gerald Connolly of Virginia, and Carolyn Maloney and Nita Lowey, both of New York, said in a Monday letter to Murphy. “Every additional day that is wasted is a day that the safety, health, and well-being of the American people is imperiled as the incoming Biden-Harris administration is blocked from fully preparing for the coronavirus pandemic, our nation’s dire economic crisis and our national security.”

The GSA earlier had said it will offer briefings for senators and the heads of four House committees on Monday, Nov. 30 -- a week later than requested, according to an emailed statement from the GSA.

The lawmakers making the request head key House panels, including the Appropriations Committee, the Oversight and Reform Committee and subcommittees on financial services and government operations.

Quigley said the lawmakers want to talk to Murphy directly, though a virtual briefing is possible. And the lawmakers laid out several options -- including a conference call -- in their Monday letter to the GSA administrator.

The GSA’s inaction has stalled the transfer of power in Washington. The agency’s designation is critical to triggering a formal transition process and giving Biden and his team access to current agency officials, briefing books and some $6 million in funding. Under federal law, the “ascertainment” of a president-elect falls to Murphy, a Trump appointee who has led the GSA since her unanimous Senate confirmation in late 2017.

The process has been complicated by President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the race and his campaign’s legal fight to dispute votes in several states. Federal law does not lay out clear standards on how the determination should be made. And it does not explicitly allow for the agency to revoke an early ascertainment decision, if election results later shift -- a factor in the agency’s delay, according to an administration official who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about the process.

But there is increasing bipartisan pressure to launch a transition process, with Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, on Monday saying it is time to “move forward.” West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito on Monday also called for Biden’s team to get “all appropriate” briefings related to national security and the pandemic.

For weeks, the Biden transition team has instead worked informally to stand up a new administration, including assembling a coronavirus task force and consulting with public health officials outside of the federal government, mimicking the approach former Vice President Dick Cheney took during the disputed 2000 election. Blocked from interacting with federal agencies, the Biden team has instead sought out other experts from academia, state governments and Capitol Hill.

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