[ad_1]
The course of US President-elect Joe Biden’s transition to power depends in part on an obscure statement called “verification.”
Some details about that process:
What is verification?
The formal presidential transition does not begin until the administrator of the federal General Services Administration determines the “apparently successful candidate” in the general election. Neither the Presidential Transition Act nor federal regulations specify how that determination should be made. That decision lights up in green the movement of the entire federal government of the United States to prepare for a transfer of power.
READ MORE:
* Joe Biden acts as incoming president, Donald Trump is reluctant to give up power
* Elections in the US: The official in charge of delivering the transition resources to Joe Biden does not move
* Election in the USA: The last days of Trump are ready to settle scores and forgive allies
* US Elections: Biden Plans an Immediate Series of Executive Orders to Reverse Trump’s Policies
* Election in the US: World leaders, Jacinda Ardern, react to the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
This is how the president-elect of the USA, Joe Biden, will come to power.
Why hasn’t it happened yet?
The agency has not said why the decision to recognize Joe Biden as president-elect has not been made. A GSA spokesperson said: “A verification has not yet been done. GSA and its Administrator will continue to meet and comply with all requirements established by law and comply with the precedents established by the Clinton Administration in 2000. “
GSA is an executive branch agency. Its administrator, Emily Murphy, was appointed by Trump, but the verification decision is supposed to be apolitical. The White House did not say whether there have been discussions on the issue between officials there and at the GSA.
What is at stake?
The determination paves the way for millions of federal dollars to flow to Biden’s transition team and opens the doors of the federal government to hundreds of Biden employees so that they can begin evaluating the agency’s operations before Opening Day on January 20. A delay in recognizing Biden. as the next president could cut federal resources to help the Biden-Harris team fill about 4,000 political appointments across the government, including critical positions in national security and health.
Andrew Harnik / AP
Vice President-elect of the United States, Kamala Harris, holds hands with President-elect Joe Biden as they celebrate their election victory.
Why does that matter?
Slowing the pace of the transition could paralyze a new administration from the start. The Trump administration, experts say, never fully recovered from the slow hiring pace of its poorly managed transition in 2016 after Trump scrapped carefully prepared plans the day after his victory.
Has this delay occurred before?
In 2000, the GSA’s determination was delayed until the Florida recount fight was resolved on December 13. At the time, the Administrator relied on an assessment by one of the drafters of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 that “in a close race, the Administrator simply would not make the decision.”
That 2000 recount involved just a few hundred votes in one state that would have determined which candidate reached 270 electoral votes. Biden’s tracks in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which pushed him over the threshold to win the White House, are far more substantial and larger than Trump’s in the same states in 2016.
The 9/11 Commission report identified the abbreviated transition process as a contribution to the nation’s lack of preparedness for the crisis.
