Magats_Love_NHB
Let It Burn!
Shutdown threatens ‘chaos’ for Trump’s transition and inauguration
Transition “landing teams” were already delayed and may now lose access to the staffers briefing them.The collapse of Congress’ spending negotiations is throwing the presidential transition and preparations for President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration into chaos as Washington stares down the prospect of a government shutdown just after midnight Friday.
Federal agencies only this week began briefing the Trump transition’s “landing teams,” which began their work more than a month later than their predecessors. Now, if Congress can’t cut a deal in the next couple days, those agencies could be forced to furlough much of the staff doing that work and shut down the government offices where it’s taking place — impeding the incoming officials’ access to documents and further slowing down already-delayed preparations to take over the federal government next month.
Trump and his team are already in the “danger zone” on transition and inauguration planning because they opted to use private emails and devices, rejected federal cybersecurity support, and are working out of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club, said Ann O’Leary, who led Hillary Clinton’s 2016 transition preparations.
“At a minimum, a shutdown of the government is going to certainly add to the chaos and the vulnerability to the U.S. government,” she added.
An OMB spokesperson warned POLITICO that such a lapse “would disrupt a wide range of activities associated with the orderly transition of power,” but declined to specify what programs and personnel would be impacted.
Agency staff are similarly in the dark. Federal staff received guidance from their leadership Thursday on what the shutdown would entail but it did not include information about how it would impact their work with the Trump transition, one State Department official, not authorized to speak on the record, told POLITICO.
The Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment.
Congress this week appeared poised to avert a shutdown with passage of a bipartisan continuing resolution that extended government funding into next year and reauthorized an array of lapsed health, agriculture and other programs. But Trump’s team, led by Elon Musk, derailed the negotiations in the past 48 hours, announcing their opposition to the bill on social media and pushing GOP leaders to demand more concessions — including a temporary or permanent lifting of the debt ceiling. That has thrown Republican congressional leadership into a tailspin as Friday’s deadline to fund the government draws near.
