The administration has until May 3 to form a committee to begin transition planning, but Democrats worry that President Trump will be disruptive.
But a senior administration official said Michael Rigas, the acting deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, will co-chair a separate panel called for under a law known as the Agency Transition Directors Council, along with a top official already designated by the General Services Administration. The official said Rigas is focused on carrying out the necessary actions for a potential presidential transition.
The inherent complexity and potential political complications of presidential transitions led Congress in 2010 to impose more specific requirements on an incumbent administration to facilitate a potential handoff. Lawmakers revised the requirements, modeled after steps taken during the Bush-Obama transition, in 2015 and again this year.
The first test of the 2010 transition law came two years later, when the Obama White House initiated a process to potentially hand the reins of government to the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. The last two presidents to leave office — George W. Bush and Obama — both sought from relatively early stages in their second terms to ensure as smooth a handoff as possible, even to the other party. Obama regularly credited Bush for how he and his team worked to ensure a seamless transition — and sought to do the same.
"The transition really has to be handled by the professional civil service, because they are going to be the common denominator across this time period," McDonough said in an interview."And the extent to which the current president has held that in such low regard really makes me concerned that they will not be empowered consistent with the requirements of the statute to ensure that this period of preparation is handled as robustly as it should be.
"Joe Biden is fully committed to a transparent, accountable, responsible government that works for the people of the United States," Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said.
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