okaydo said:
Uh, yes, there is a law.
Presidential transitions are a lot of work. That's why they are supposed to begin the day after Election Day.
https://presidentialtransition.org/publications/presidential-transition-act-summary/
yes, I read the article and the law. My post may have been a little too general for your understanding, but is accurate. There is no law that requires cooperation. There is law and what is left to do is in the hands on the GSA, as I noted, and will be likely need to be obtained by court order when thinking about Trump. This is what happens when read Vox and repeat it.
First thing wrong: the transition doesn't begin on the day after the election as you stated. Almost everything is in place already. Read the law. So far, the administration has met its statutory requirements, such as designating space to the Biden campaign, establishing a White House coordinating committee and council of agency transition directors and submitting reports to Congress.
Second thing wrong: There is law on cooperation level. That doesn't mean the appointees need to cooperate. Trump could limit cooperation and make the typically staid process a messy affair. There are no rules on how much cooperation is required, other then in specific instances about military assessments, etc. (and one could argue there is some data to be delivered). You can get into a pissing contest just how much cooperation Biden is entitled to be read into the law, but the courts can't resolve that by the time Biden already is President. $9 million dollars doesn't buy you much cooperation for the entire executive branch (Biden could try to get private funds, but that still doesn't buy cooperation).
Third, a problem: Abrupt policy moves by Trump between now and Jan. 20 inauguration day - from trade decisions to troop withdrawals to presidential pardons to executive orders could undercut the incoming administration. Maybe this is a bad read on Trump, but I think that is coming. Trump will be concerned with preserving his legacy. Bident, on the other hand, will be focused on beginning his own initiatives. Trump will want to protect his policies from being reversed or undermined and may also want to create obstacles to prevent his successor from too quickly achieving political and policy success. Some of this actually happened with Obama Trump and I assume Trump will hold a grudge. Trump is under no obligation to implement or even hep Biden;s political agenda. The Constitution does not demand that the outgoing president pave the political way for his successor or even not provide impediments.
If you bother to read the law, the only thing left post-election is:
Post-Election (if there is a change in administration)- On the day following the election, GSA begins to provide office space and support services to the president-elect and Vice President-elect, with support continuing up to 60 days after inauguration
- A classified summary regarding national security is given to the president-elect as soon as possible after the election
- 30 days before the expiration of the term, GSA begins support to outgoing president and vice president, with support continuing for 7 months total.
What happens if the result of the election is unclear? The law provides that an eligible candidate has the right to the facilities and services provided to eligible candidates until the date on which the Administrator is able to determine the apparent successful candidates for the office of president and vice president.
Biden't transition staff is in fact physically present already. The transition process cannot shift into gear until the GSA certifies the winner, and it has not yet made a determination. Until then, the GSA can continue providing Biden's team with offices, computers and background checks for security clearances, but they cannot yet enter federal agencies or talk to transition appointees. As I said in my post, my guess is that the courts will ultimately require the GSA to act after Trump losses in court, and as I said in my post, Biden will get minimum cooperation. Again transition appointees don't have tell them what they want. Just so there is an understanding of the level of cooperation needed, there is myriad of governmental agencies, more than 4,000 political appointees, and an annual budget of more than $4.5 trillion. If there is a lack of cooperation, the courts will have to read into the legislation some implicit level of cooperation, and that will take a long time.
The nature and degree of help provided by the outgoing administration to the new administration has varied over the nation's history. And you can read about them. By way of example, W immediately upon taking office, instructed his administration: 1) not to issue any new rules (initiated during President Clinton's administration) until they could be evaluated by a Bush appointee, 2) to pull back any rules that were on the brink of being issued,
3) to suspend the implementation of any rules that had been promulgated but had not yet gone into effects; and 4) a complete review of all administrative entities.
There are no cases addressing presidential duties and obligations with respect to transition, and even if a legal dispute developed, it is likely that a court could find it nonjusticiable, and just wait for Biden to take office. The law that provides structure to transition does not provide specificity to what constitutes the boundaries of cooperation, which is left in the eye of the beholder, judges. Even additional duties that may be found in the Constitution could take years to decide, and when the President takes his oath, become moot (the cases would never reach fruition). Even if, for example, there was a statute requiring the transitions teams to meet with and brief the President-elect that were constitutional, how could the courts force the President to do anything of substance? You could ask a Vox journalist, but they never got there.
