- President-elect
Joe Biden 's campaign is reportedly considering legal action if President Trump's refusal to concede the election continues to delay the transition. - Biden's camp is unable to begin formal preparations to takeover power until a federal agency has formally determined the 'apparent successful candidate' in the election.
- 'We believe that the time has come for the GSA administrator to promptly ascertain Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President-elect and Vice President-elect,' said a Biden transition staffer on Monday, according to CBS
News . - The delay means that millions of dollars in federal funding reserved for the incoming administration have been withheld
President-elect Joe Biden's campaign is reportedly considering legal action in order to prevent President Trump's refusal to concede the election from delaying the transition process.
The Biden-Harris team is unable to begin formal preparations to takeover power until a federal agency called the General Services Administration (GSA) has formally determined the "apparent successful candidate" in the election, according to an Associated Press report published by Business Insider.
"We believe that the time has come for the GSA administrator to promptly ascertain Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President-elect and Vice President-elect," said an unnamed Biden-Harris transition staffer on a conference call with reporters on Monday, according to CBS News.
The official also confirmed that the campaign would consider legal action, according to the CBS News report. "There are a number of options on the table, legal action is certainly a possibility, but there are other options as well that we're considering," they told CBS.
News organisations including Insider, Fox, and CNN have declared the election for the Democratic candidate but the GSA has not yet formally recognised the incoming administration under a process called "ascertainment."
Trump has refused to concede defeat in the election, making unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in key battleground states where he lost to Biden and filing multiple lawsuits in a bid to overturn the results.
A spokesperson for the GSA has not clarified why the agency has not declared Biden as the projected winner of the election, according to the Associated Press. It is unclear whether it is related to President Trump's ongoing refusal to concede, or to electoral lawsuits that his campaign has filed.
The delay means that millions of dollars in federal funding reserved for the incoming administration have been withheld, according to the Associated Press. The money is intended for Biden staffers in order to begin the complex process of transition, paying for salaries, office space, and other costs.
There are around 4,000 political appointments to be made by the incoming administration, according to the Associated Press.