Still, in a letter to Biden’s transition chief on Thursday, the office of management and budget director Russell Vought said his office would not help transition officials begin developing their own policies that he said would “bankrupt America” ‘not.
“As the record shows, OMB has fully participated in appropriate transition efforts. What we have not done and will not do is use the current OMB staff to write the (Biden Transition Team) legislative policy proposals to the government ‘s work to dissolve. about this policy’s policy and will do so until the last day of this administration in office, ‘Vought wrote in his letter, addressed to Ted Kaufman, Biden’s head of transition.
“Redirecting staff and resources to draft your team’s budget proposals is not an OMB transition responsibility,” he said.
Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Biden’s transition team, fired back later on Thursday, doubling down on allegations of lack of cooperation from OMB.
“In this moment of unprecedented crisis, when millions of American families are enduring terrible economic hardship, it is indefensible to undermine the US Government’s ability to draw up a budget and provide effective assistance to those who need it most, especially from the express , declaratory bias, ”Bates said in a statement.
CNN reported this week that Trump administration officials are wary of any transitional activity that could give the Biden team a head start in breaking down Trump’s priorities, such as its construction on the wall. Other officials have also expressed concern that information provided to the Biden team may be leaked or made public, although there has been no evidence that this has happened in the weeks since the transition meetings began.
“We have encountered roadblocks of the political leadership in the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget. At the moment we are just not getting all the information we need from the outgoing government in key national security areas,” Biden said. . said in Wilmington, Delaware, where its transition is headquartered.
On Wednesday, the transition from Biden said the OMB’s unwillingness to cooperate on transition efforts specifically harms the planning for Covid-19 assistance.
“This deliberately generated opacity makes it harder for our government to move forward,” said Yohannes Abraham, executive director of the transition. “The refusal of OMB leadership to cooperate fully undermines our ability to identify opportunities to maximize the relief of Americans during the pandemic, and it leaves us in the dark when it comes to COVID spending and critical gaps. . ”
In his letter, Vought insisted that OMB informed the Biden team of Covid efforts, including budget levels.
“According to your specific criticism regarding COVID, as you know, your team was informed by OMB as well as the relevant agencies about Operation Warp Speed and other COVID assistance, including the various funding streams used for these efforts,” he said. wrote. “Furthermore, there is a record that your team only gained access to these critical documents last week.”
He concluded his letter to Kaufman by writing: “Our system of government has one president and one administration at a time. OMB will not participate in the development of policies that will weaken border security, disrupt the president’s deregulation successes and draw up budgets that America will not go bankrupt. “
It is unclear whether any specific guidelines have been sent from the president impeding the transitional activities. Aides says Trump remains solely focused on overthrowing the outcome of the election, and has not paid attention to the transitional activities currently taking place at agencies. He has no plans to meet with Biden himself.
But one official said Trump had expressed concern that Biden’s team was looking for ways to erase its agenda items such as the border wall, and also suggested, without evidence, that Biden’s team leak information about its government.
This story has been updated with a statement from the Biden transition team.
CNN’s Sarah Mucha contributed to this report.