President-elect Trump reached a required agreement with President Biden's White House on Tuesday to allow his transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before taking office on Jan. 20. The congressionally mandated agreement allows transition aides to work with federal agencies and access non-public information and gives a green light to government workers to talk to the transition team, the AP reports. But Trump has declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration that would have given his team access to secure government offices and email accounts, in part because it would require that the president-elect limit contributions to $5,000 and reveal who is donating to his transition effort.
The White House agreement was supposed to have been signed by Oct. 1, according to the Presidential Transition Act, and the Biden White House had issued both public and private appeals for Trump's team to sign on. Politico describes the delay as "unprecedented." When he was a candidate, Biden and his team signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2020, the Hill notes. The agreement is a critical step in ensuring an orderly transfer of power at noon on Inauguration Day, and lays the groundwork for the White House and government agencies to begin to share details on ongoing programs, operations, and threats.
The agreement limits the risk that the Trump team could find itself taking control of the massive federal government without briefings and documents from the outgoing administration. As part of the agreement, Trump's team will have to publicly disclose its ethics plan for the transition operation and make a commitment to uphold it, the White House said. Transition aides must sign statements that they have no financial positions that could pose a conflict of interest before they receive access to non-public federal information. Without the signed agreement, Biden administration officials were restricted in what they could share with the incoming team.
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A separate agreement with the Department of Justice to coordinate background checks for vetting and security clearances is still being actively worked on and could be signed quickly now that the White House agreement is signed. The agency has teams of investigators standing by to process clearances for Trump aides and advisers once that document is signed. (More transition team stories.)
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