“Today’s decision is a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track,” Yohannes Abraham, a Biden transition official, said in a statement. “This final decision is a definitive administrative action to formally begin the transition process with federal agencies.”

“In the days ahead, transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests, and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration’s efforts to hollow out government agencies,” Abraham said.

The transition team’s statement came shortly after Trump-appointed GSA Administrator Emily Murphy sent a letter to Biden informing him and his team that the administration was ready to begin the formal transition process more than two weeks after Biden was projected the winner of the presidential election.