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President Donald Trump has proposed the concept of postponing the November election because of the existing pandemic, and tough Democrats like Nancy Pelosi have expressed fear that the Republican will leave the White House if he loses to Joe Biden.
But Trump administration officials behind the scenes must quietly hand over executive power in case the president loses his re-election, according to a new document sent this week to Congressional control agencies.
The report sent Monday to key House and Senate committees, required by law, shows that administration officials have met for months to discuss transition plans, as federal agencies have their own staff to check the background of a new president-elect’s team, if necessary.
In July, for example, the White House Transitional Coordination Council, chaired by Trump staff leader Mark Meadows, even held an assembly for its members on transitional activities.
Elsewhere, intelligence network officials are preparing to provide confidential reports to the president-elect, the vice president-elect, and his transition groups if Trump is overthrown. And the FBI is hiring more people to conduct background checks, according to the seven-page document.
Biden has also been under Secret Service coverage since March 17, the document says, and federal agencies are already making security plans for the 2021 presidential nomination.
“They’re doing a job,” said David Marchick, director of the Center for The Presidential Transition of the Defense Group for Good Governance, the Association for Public Service, about the Trump administration.
“A lot of things are happening for transition plans and it seems that they take the implementation of the law very seriously, which is positive,” Marchick added. There’s a lot at stake, he said, “The continuity of government is literally at stake.”
Biden’s transition team, led by Biden’s confidant Ted Kaufman, can move to federal workplaces at the Department of Commerce headquarters in downtown Washington through September 1. The government will provide the Democratic candidate’s team with a secure computer network, workplace supplies, telework software, and workplace. Security.
This week’s report is the official transition document that the Trump team sent to Congress this year. Mary Gibert, the Transitional Federal Coordinator, sent the first report in May. Both reports were sent to the leaders of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Reform and Oversight Committee, said of the most recent report: “There are career officials in the General Service Administration and other agencies striving to achieve the smooth functioning of the presidential transition and the arrival of government after the November election.”
But the Trump administration, he told Insider in a statement, “has not provided much detail about his transition plans. In particular, I wonder if the White House is taking appropriate steps to keep the records of President Trump, vice president. Pence.” and key white house assistants and transfer those documents to the National Records and Archives Administration.”