Pressure Continues to Mount for GSA to Ascertain Biden as Presidential Election Winner
(Government Executive | Nov. 12, 2020) It’s been five days since media organizations determined Democratic candidate Joe Biden secured enough electoral votes to become president-elect, but the General Services Administration has yet to give the go-ahead for the formal transition process to begin and more voices are calling on the agency to do so.
Despite the progress the Biden transition team has been making, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, a political appointee, needs to “ascertain” a winner before the Biden team can send personnel into the agencies, obtain briefing books prepared mainly by career civil servants and access millions in funds …
… Syracuse University Professor Robert Murrett, who is a former career intelligence officer in the Navy, told Government Executive on Thursday he “would be more concerned” if the president-elect was someone other than Biden since he “is so familiar with the national security arena” from his tenure as vice president and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and it’s “also very helpful” that Harris is on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
However, Murrett said he is very concerned about the “exodus” of top officials at the Pentagon this week along with “the number of non-Senate confirmed acting officials we have across government” during this notably vulnerable time period …