Biden transition faces cash crunch

Inauguration to be scaled back due to virus

Joe Biden has turned to crowdfunding to help pay for his transition team as he prepares an administration to take over the reins of government in January.

The U.S. president-elect, who had already put aside an estimated $10 million for the transition, has been forced to put out the begging bowl while the Trump administration declines to follow convention and release cash to allow the handover to take place smoothly under a process known as “ascertainment.”

With Donald Trump refusing to accept he lost the election, the General Services Administration, a normally obscure arm of government, has refused to co-operate with the incoming Biden team. The stance by Trump-appointed administrator Emily Murphy has meant that Biden has been denied office space, briefings and an estimated $8 million of federal money.

This means the Biden team has to pay for salaries and expenses for the transition itself. Although it is not uncommon for incoming presidents to raise some transition cash from private sources, this is normally in addition to the money from the GSA.

Democrats are growing impatient at the stance taken by Murphy, a Republican.

Carolyn Maloney and Nita Lowey, the chairs of the House oversight and appropriations committees, have threatened to summon Murphy and her senior staff to a public grilling before Congress.

Four former secretaries of Homeland Security — drawn from both Republican and Democratic administrations — issued a statement pleading with her to ease the transition. “Our country is in the middle of twin crises: a global pandemic and a severe economic downturn. The pandemic will make any transition more complicated,” they wrote.

“At this period of heightened risk for our nation, we do not have a single day to spare to begin the transition. For the good of the nation, we must start now.”

Apart from the transition, Biden's team also has the challenge of organizing his inauguration on Jan. 20.

An estimated one million people attended Barack Obama's second inauguration in 2013 — and somewhere between 700,000 and 900,000 saw Trump take the oath of office in 2017.

Biden is planning for a scaled-down inauguration due to the coronavirus pandemic, aides said on Sunday.

“We know people want to celebrate. There is something here to celebrate,” Ron Klain, Biden's chief of staff, told ABC's This Week program. “We just want to try to find a way to do it as safely as possible.”

Klain also said the president-elect would be announcing the first of his Cabinet appointments on Tuesday.