More than 170 leaders from top US firms including Goldman Sachs and Microsoft urge Congress to certify Biden's Electoral College win

• More than 170 American business executives signed a letter urging Congress to certify the electoral vote on Wednesday and confirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
• Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon, Microsoft President Brad Smith, BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla were among the signatories.
• "Attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy," the business leaders said in the letter.
• Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris deserve respect as America faces "the worst health and economic crises in modern history," they said.

More than 170 American business leaders on Monday signed a letter urging Congress to certify the result of the presidential election without delay.

Congress is scheduled to certify the result on Wednesday and confirm President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. President Donald Trump has so far refused to acknowledge that he lost the election.

The Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization and major business advocacy group, published the letter on Monday. Signatories included Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon, Microsoft President Brad Smith, BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. James Zelter, a copresident of Apollo Global Management, and Lyft CEO Logan Green also signed the letter.

"This presidential election has been decided and it is time for the country to move forward," the letter said. "President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have won the Electoral College and the courts have rejected challenges to the electoral process."

The leaders added that "attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy."

Biden and Harris deserve respect and bipartisan support as America faces "the worst health and economic crises in modern history," they said.

The letter said that Congress should certify the electoral vote and that "there should be no further delay in the orderly transfer of power."

But at least 140 Republican House members are planning to vote against certification, two representatives told CNN last week.

Read more: Secret Service experts are speculating in group chats about how Trump might be hauled out of the White House if he won't budge on Inauguration Day

Trump and other Republicans have tried to overturn the result of the election, pushing false claims of voter fraud.

Over the weekend, Trump pleaded with Georgia's secretary of state in an hourlong phone call to "find" additional votes to overturn Biden's victory in the state.

Biden won the 2020 presidential election with 306 electoral votes, flipping five states that voted for Trump in 2016.