Biden transition moves forward
GSA head gives in to pressure from Rep. Quigley, congressional Dems
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley talks with environmental activists before a demonstration in Chicago two years ago. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
The transition to President-elect Joe Biden is officially underway.
The head of the General Services Administration gave in to pressure from congressional Democrats late Monday and formally authorized the transition to proceed, releasing funding for the process.
Earlier Monday, congressional leaders demanded that GSA Administrator Emily Murphy meet with them Tuesday, after she attempted to delay a hearing until next week over her refusal to recognize the election of Joe Biden as president.
After U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago joined other heads of House committees last week in demanding that Murphy begin the transition process for the Jan. 20 inauguration or meet with them to explain the delay, Murphy offered instead on Monday to send her deputy to meet with them next week.
“We don’t want the deputy,” Quigley said Monday in an appearance on MSNBC. “We want the person who makes the decision.”
Murphy is a Trump appointee, of course, and critics charged that she was letting politics interfere with the usual transition process intended to smooth the way for President-elect Biden to replace Donald Trump.
Murphy dismissed that criticism Monday in a letter to Biden’s transition team obtained by CNN, insisting, “I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts.”
Quigley, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, which oversees the GSA, again joined three other House committee leaders — Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, chairwoman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, and Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee’s Government Operations Subcommittee — in submitting another letter to Murphy demanding she appear before them Tuesday to explain the delay. According to Quigley, they were immediately backed up by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The GSA has to formally ascertain that the election is won before the transition process from the Trump administration to the Biden administration can begin — starting with funding allowances and government access. All major U.S. news outlets called the race for Biden over two weeks ago. The congressional leaders pointed out last week that the Obama administration granted transition access to Trump the day after the election four years ago — even though that election was much closer.
“We cannot wait yet another week to obtain basic information about your refusal to make the ascertainment determination,” the House leaders stated in their letter Monday 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.”
Biden has warned that “more people may die” in the COVID-19 pandemic if there isn’t a seamless transition between administrations on Inauguration Day Jan. 20.
The House committee leaders said they’d be willing to play host to the meeting, offering a series of times and online platforms to accommodate Murphy, but instead Murphy sent her letter formally authorizing the transition to proceed.
Trump “is never going to concede — never,” Quigley told MSNBC on Monday. “At this point in time, unless she does the right thing, she will be helping him overcome the will of the American people.
“I sensed the pressure that she was under,” he added, in talking with Murphy directly last week. “But I made clear what her legal requirements are. As tough as all that is, this is her job. I stressed this is a president who is not going to concede.”
Pointing out that no other sitting president has ever denied the legitimacy of an election and the peaceful transfer of power, Quigley granted it would be “unprecedented” for Murphy to determine the election without Trump having conceded. “But the other alternative is far worse,” he added. “That a GSA administrator would allow an embittered president, unwilling to concede, to subvert the will of the people,” Quigley said, would “put this country in danger for not allowing the transition to take place.”
Georgia certified its election results last week, and the hotly contested states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Nevada were expected to follow suit this week. Quigley said, “I do think certification will help” to encourage Murphy to make the formal call to begin the transition. After Michigan certified its results Monday, Murphy’s letter to the Biden campaign soon followed.
Trump actually confirmed the transition in a tweet, but also said he was not conceding the election.
“I’m hoping that we’re seeing the last acts of an autocratic president,” Quigley said.