Still, in a letter to Biden’s transition chief dated Thursday, the director of the Office of Administration and Budget, Russel Vought, said his office would not help transition authorities begin to develop their own policies which, according to he, “would bankrupt America.”
“As the record shows, OMB participated fully in the appropriate transition efforts. What we have not done and will not do is use the current OMB team to draft legislative policy proposals (from the Biden Transition Team) to dismantle the work of this administration The OMB team is working on the policies of this government and it will be so until the last day of this government, “wrote Vought in his letter, which was addressed to Ted Kaufman, head of the Biden transition.
“Redirecting employees and resources to draft their team’s budget proposals is not a transition responsibility for OMB,” he said.
Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Biden’s transition team, reacted on Thursday, doubling down on charges of OMB’s lack of cooperation.
“In this moment of unprecedented crisis, when millions of American families are experiencing terrible economic difficulties, it is indefensible to undermine the ability of the United States government to prepare a budget and efficiently provide aid to those who need it most, especially in an explicit partisan way” , said Bates in a statement.
CNN reported this week that Trump administration officials are concerned about any transitional activity that could provide Biden’s team with an advantage in dismantling Trump’s priorities, such as building his border wall. Other officials also expressed concern that the information provided to Biden’s team could leak or become public, although there is no evidence that this has happened in the weeks since the start of the transition meetings.
“We encountered obstacles from political leadership in the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget. At the moment, we are simply not getting all the information we need from the outgoing administration in key areas of national security, ”said Biden. said in Wilmington, Delaware, where his transition is based.
On Wednesday, the Biden transition said that the OMB’s reluctance to cooperate in the transition efforts was specifically hampering the planning of Covid-19’s relief efforts.
“This intentionally generated opacity makes it more difficult for our government to move forward,” said Yohannes Abraham, executive director of the transition. “The OMB leadership’s refusal to cooperate fully undermines our ability to identify opportunities to maximize aid to Americans during the pandemic and leaves us in the dark when it comes to COVID-related spending and critical gaps.”
In his letter, Vought insisted that the OMB had informed Biden’s team about Covid’s efforts, including budget levels.
“For your specific criticisms regarding COVID, as you know, your team has been informed by OMB, as well as the relevant agencies, about Operation Warp Speed and other COVID relief efforts, including the various funding streams in use for these efforts, “he wrote. “In addition, there is a record of your team accessing these essential documents last week.”
He concluded his letter to Kaufman by writing: “Our system of government has one president and one government at a time. The OMB will not participate in the development of policies that will weaken border security, dismantle the president’s deregulating successes and draw up budgets that will take America bankrupt. “
It is not clear whether any specific guidelines have been sent by the president on how to hinder transition activities. Aides say Trump remains solely focused on reversing the election results and has not paid special attention to the transitional activities that are currently taking place at the agencies. He has no plans to meet Biden himself.
But an official said that Trump expressed concern that Biden’s team was looking for ways to delete items from his agenda, such as the border wall, and also suggested, without evidence, that Biden’s team is leaking information about his administration. .
This story was updated with a statement from the Biden transition team.
CNN’s Sarah Mucha contributed to this report.