Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20160811 : c

Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20160811

Taking place of the george w. Bush president ial library in dallas, this is one hour in 20 minutes. One of the most striking features of president ial transitions is the bipartisanship that prevails among government officials in congress who read the transition laws. The president and the white house staff who set the direction of planning and departments and agencies that carried out the policies. It was not always the case. When the 1952, president truman wanted to bring to the white house but the republican and democratic president ial nominees to meet with his cabinet and white house staff members, he met with the partisan divide. He wanted them to come in because he found when he came into office he was unprepared. He came in january of 1945, roosevelt died in april and truman knew nothing of the atomic bomb. Seated by that experience, he wanted to bring people so they could understand what was ahead of them. Adlai stevenson accepted but general eisenhower turned down trumans invitation in large part because he said he was running against the administrations program and thought the public would not understand why he would be coming into the white house when he was running against it. Ruman was very upset to he set the handwritten note which he would sometimes do so he can get it by staff, he had a handwritten note to eisenhower ofmenting on his own way looking at the turned down by the general. Sorryte, im extremely that you have allowed a bunch of screwballs to come between us. You have made a bad mistake and i am hoping it will not enter this great republic. The strong partisan nature of that transition no longer distinguishes the handoff of hours from one president to his successor. Our five panelists are in a position to discuss the shape of transition as each of our officials has gone through for one or more of them at a senior planning level. Additionally, they are all involved in current efforts to fortify the transition process and find areas of agreement that will ensure a president ial transition in a bipartisan setting, which is the theme of our conference. Our conference is one of three and were going to hold at texas president ial library. The other two will be at the lbj library on september 2223 yuan with National Security and on october dealing with National Security and on october, Crisis Management with two scenarios, financial and National Security crisis. All are around the theme of the importance of bipartisanship and transition. We are going to begin with two chiefs of staff who know the beginnings and ends of administrations. Max came in at the beginning of the Clinton Administration as chief of staff and josh was at the end of the Bush Administration. The september 11 attacks and the transition out of office of george w. Bush changed the tone and action undertaken during the transition period. In 2008 president bush led the most determined transition out of office that we have experienced. He began the transition cycle in 2007 in discussions with his chief of staff, josh bolten who led the effort. Uin turnnterne closed the circle by habit representatives of the incoming outgoing executives meet well before the election. He brought together representatives of the candidates in the white house in july. Almost two months prior to the 2008 party convention. Johnson, who led the transition of the executive director for president bush and 2001, he was the office of management and lead the department and Agency Planning Work Together information for a new team. He will be on the second panel. Equally important in the 2008 transition was interest in making use of those administration preparations by those leading the transition effort for senator and bend president elect obama. Christopher lee, executive director of the transition effort for senator obama was in those july meetings and worked with bolten and his deputy on the bush team. He is now the secretary deputy secretary and the department of labor and involved in the transition out of office of president obama. Lisa brown was codirector of Agency Review for obama and also begin work in july of assembling teams to go to the departments and agencies to collect information on programs, staff positions and upcoming schedules and budgets. President bush and his team willing to lead a transition eager to use by obama. All the panelists are involved in efforts to solidify the gains in transition planning and in finding ways to expand the areas of agreement such as the president ial appointment process. Max mclarty along with clay johnson have been leaders of the in situ project for reforming the appointed process. Lisa brown was part of the congressional and Obama Administration a reform effort. They are knowledgeable and i will set to talk about the transition. Aboutogram today comes through the work of many institutions and individuals. Our panelists have come from a distance to speak about president ial transitions and we thank our guests for coming to talk to us about the subject. Support of thehe Moody Foundation and for you and Jamie Williams interest in the project. We appreciate it and the work that you are doing in the president ial Leadership Programs that you support. Next, the george w. Bush president ial center has provided our state and significant logistical support. We thank you as well as her colleagues. Your the Baker Institute for Public Policy is our partner in who we are coordinating with on the white house transition process. Finally, we thank the staff of the white house transition project to afford for our conference and often honor analytical programs. Lets begin with josh bolten and max mclarty to do transition no transition to their work as chief of staff. This will be followed by a program on the president ial appointments process and the discussion of the Administration Transition out of office. Thank you. [applause] sit where you like. You can tell whos in charge. [laughter] the 2008 transition was by all sides viewed as the best that we have had. Anyway put attention that had not privily been the case. I wonder if you can talk about the elements that you see that were important in that transition. Why was it so good . Thank you. For the recognition of the work that the Bush Administration did and the president did himself. My answer to your question. It comes from the president. Max knows this better than anybody, so much in a president ial term and the executive agenda comes from what or president says he eventually she is interested. In. That was sure of the 2008 president ial transition bush directed me more than a year before the transition and as he mentioned, late 2007 its on the president first spoke to me as his chief of staff and talked about how important he thought this president ial transition would be because it was the first president ial transition in our modern history during which our homeland was actually under threat. 9 11 changed everything. About the bush presidency in our country. So he was determined that we not have an unnecessary period of vulnerability during the early months of the incoming president S Administration regardless of party. Relevant to president bushs consideration when he said he gave me the direction to effective and most complete transition in american history. That was a low bar to meet. [laughter] on bothnally, ive been ends of a transition already, both going out of the bush 41 administration in the coming into the bush 43 administration. In a bipartisan way. Just on something that attracted attention. Not something that attracted attention. Not a question of partisanship. I think you will agree. I do agree. Historically in america, a question of we dont need to do that. Dont learn on the job. They had time to get there feet on the ground and run the place the way they want to run it. We dont need to spend a lot of time doing stuff, doing preparatory work for the next gang and that probably isnt particularly welcome in the first place. It was deftly a change of psychology and in the 2008 transition, we had ultimately a terrific partnership with a very well organized obama team that will be represented on your neck panel next panel. What direction did he give you . The truth is, i dont really remember. [laughter] i do recall that it was not detailed instructions. Styleasnt george bush is to say i want to make sure they have all their appointments in place and that the briefing books are here in the diagram of , anybodywing, that is who knows george w. Bush knows he is a leader and a man of principle. He empowers people to do their jobs. He considered it my job and the job of my staff, the staff job of clay johnson to figure out what the details were. Sayingat i do recall him explicitly is that i want these people to be as prepared as possible to deal with a crisis should one happen on the first day of the next ministry should. Administration. That is both a tall order and a major undertaking. There was a threat on the inauguration. There was. We were particularly concerned a terrorist attack during the actual inauguration. It is a moment of extraordinary peril when you think about it. So much of the government actually moves. A key people at of top move around but most the government remains in place. Fewur system, the top thousand leaders of government are actually replaced in a transition, especially transition between parties were basically everybody who used to be there is out all at the same moment. It is not like it is a slow process of the onemonth a few people come in the next month or people and so on. 20 everyn on january four years that the people who have been in charge suddenly have no authority anymore. They are done, you were out. Your badge does not work. You cant get back into your office. To or either expects should follow your instructions. Abrupt change in our system and the new people, i remember walking into the white 20, 2001 andary you walk into a blank office and theres nothing on the walls, a few supplies on the desk, computers but there is nothing in the memory bank. You might know the phone numbers of a few of the people you may need to reach but it is a very complete and abrupt transition and for the country, that is a real period of vulnerability and i dont think it lasts all that long. But the first few days in a crisis, the people who need to make the decision might not even know how to reach the other people that they need to reach to take action. Transition in the 2009 was we08 and did our best to prepare the incoming folks to work with each other and also to pair up the out coming outgoing people with the incoming people. We held a tabletop exercise in early january in which we assembled cabinet officers who were relevant to a National Security crisis. We assembled in the Old Executive Office building and we had all the outgoing officials there who would be involved in a National Security crisis, secretary of homeland security, the National Security advisor, wesecretary of health populated a chemicalbio attack. We had all the right officials in the outgoing message and who knew each other and you who did what. And we brought in their incoming counterparts and we went to the tabletop exercise with the old people sitting next to the incoming people and i dont know if i dont know how much you can learn and it three hour tabletop exercise about how to act in a crisis but the main thing was that they laid eyes on the other people with whom they would need to communicate and i will bet for most of the people in the incoming obama cabinet, that was the first time they had was onedirector muller key official who emma because the nature of his position, transitioned acrosS Administrations and would be a key person to know and can indicate with in the event of a crisis. One other thing i will mention that we did, we asked the home , who hadity secretary planned a vacation with his wife 20, we00 p. M. On july asked him to stick around for a during Inauguration Day he was in an offsite with the nncoming secretary, security i the control center where they could monitor all the threat information and we asked him, even if his authority would be eliminated as of noon on generic 20, we asked him to stick around, be there for advice and so on for secretary napolitano as she takes the reins. It turned out to be important because there was a threat on Inauguration Day. It turned out to be a credible threat. It turned out not to be an actual threat, an actual crediblebut there was intelligence suggesting an attack at the inauguration itself on the mall. I mentioned i imagine if that happens in 2017, folks will be a lot better 2009red than we were in but we at least have thought ,bout it, had talked with folks had our people as wellpositioned as we could under the circumstances to have a smooth handoff. Bipartisanship, they had both worked as prosecutors and knew each other very well. It was an easy discussion between the two of them. Matt, can you tell us about the discussions about transition into office that you had with president clinton. I would be glad to. First of all, it is good to be with you. And a privilege to be here. And a privilege to be with the chief. Our transition was different. It was a different time and place. Josh smith nick lee point about 9 11. Josh makes a key point about 9 11. Personal security became National Security and vice versa. It affected transitions. Alice was a much earlier time. Point, governor clinton, like most president ial candidates before him was very concerned if you have a serious large effort underway entrees at that it would be easy for the press to say, such a show of arrogance here measured the proverbial grapes in the oval office and indeed even with president obama, there was a little talk about that with his transition efforts even after 9 11. That was part of it. I think in our case, as lisa , unlikes from her time josh, i came into the transition late from the private sector having served as a chief executive officer of a new york stock it changed stock exchange. Came in knowing some of the people but not all. The positive side, governor clinton, like most president for candidates had laid out a clear agenda of what he wanted to accomplish in his first 100 days and first two years. That in and of itself laid out a roadmap in terms of the policy work in the administration. Transition,ring the a high priority was placed on the selection of the cabinet. We spent a lot of time there and i think im our work reflected that. Talked about the loyalty and competency and engagement of the cabinet in the Clinton Administration. We also spent a lot of time integrating offices. It was a priority of president elect clinton as he and al gore had run as a team and before that the Vice President , including president bush 21 41 had been an important figure. Curvewe got behind the with the selection of the white house staff. I think that was a setback for us. Side, weon the policy were able to move forward with the economic plan. We were able to move forward with the cabinet and i like so much the spirit of bipartisanship because we did fromve good cooperation the republican members of the Senate Getting a cabinet members in place. As clay johnson know so well, that is only a start. You had get the deputy and the assistant secretaries and place in place. On the National Security front, before 9 11, before the terrorist events we have seen that we are so troubled about, a different landscape although there were on her abilities. I do think vulnerabilities. Ado think that there was springsteen that worked during the campaign, able to make the transition. The final point, and josh has alluded to is, the real two hallmarks of the transition other than being open, prepared, start early, vucevic now has become much better understood and much more accepted, ive spoken with the Business Roundtable he has been active , i think itojects is much better understood how critical transitions are. It is that moment in a 77 day period where there is so much to be done, so many various stakeholders to respond to and it is a moment where it is a essential essential to have it from campaign to governing. That is what transitions, the hallmark of any successful transition. One of the aspects of moving from campaign to governor governing is that there are different needs. The rhythms of a campaign are different because you have, you trying to win each day and you have a policy agenda that is limited that you are talking about. When you come in to govern you need people that are less partisan in a sense and once with experience in the washington community. You will move from one issue to another where you may have coalitions of supporters and then your enemies are your friends in the once afterwards. When you have Campaign People, another mindset you know their mindset. How do you make that transition of personnel, of bringing in people who are appropriate for governing who may not have been on your campaign and what do you do with the Campaign People that you want to reward and how does the president elect president deal with that . Im getting a headache just thinking about this. [laughter] you make the right point. You have had people in the campaign that have truly worked their hearts out for the candidate and the campaign and in many cases, made tremendous sacrifices, whether theyve taken a leave of absence to the job or moved to little rock, arkansas in our case or texas to spend a year plus of their lives trying to get george w. Bush or bill clinton elected, there is a feeling of loyalty. Token, you do have to be pretty steely eyed and not insensitive or empathetic on empathetic that you are moving into a different passage and a different requirement. You have to have a blend of people that were in the campaign you are naturally and hopefully wellsuited to make t

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