Subject: draft briefing memo for your review
From: "Chris Lu" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:54:44 -0500

Weekly Transition Memo for Senators Obama and Biden

From:    Transition Advisory Board and Staff

Date:     October 18, 2008

I.             Structure of Transition

At this point, we are planning for a transition staff of 400 people with
a total budget of $11 million ($5.2 million would be covered by the
federal government, and the rest would be raised privately.)  As with
the composition of an Obama Administration, we are working to ensure
that the transition will contain a mixture of campaign staffers and
outside people with relevant policy, technical, or management skills.
The task of creating a diverse transition staff will be easier after
Election Day when we can actively reach out to state and local elected
officials to solicit names of qualified people.

To facilitate the staffing of the post-Election Day transition staff, we
have asked board members and working group chairs to provide their
thoughts on how many people will be needed in the various departments.
We are also engaged in discussions with the campaign leadership on how
best to move campaign staff to the transition after Election Day.

Separately, we anticipate that the inauguration planning efforts will be
able to hire several hundred staffers.

II.            Agency Review

The agency review team held an all-day meeting last week and is in the
process of finalizing the two-page memos of every federal
department/agency which will be used by the President-Elect and Vice
President-Elect in selecting and interviewing potential nominees. 

III.           Communications

The communications team is reaching out to the various transition
working groups to solicit their ideas for how to frame the message of
the 77-day transition.  The team is examining how previous
president-elects, vice president-elects, and first ladies-to-be have
spent the transition period, and is also coordinating the content for
the transition website, which will go live on November 5.

IV.          Economic Team

On October 17, the transition economic team (led by Bill Daley) met with
its informal "advisory board," which consists of Laura Tyson, Roger
Ferguson, Anne Mulcahy, Bob Reich, Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Paul Volker
and Jack Lew  (Volker and Ferguson were unable to attend).  The group
spent six hours reviewing the following topics:  stimulus, budget,
financial markets (including foreclosures), and international economics.
Each area began with a review of the positions expressed during the
campaign.  

Several high-level areas received particular attention:  1) a framing of
the budget discussions in contrast to the situation in 1993 and in light
of the current economic climate; 2) the size, timing and content of a
stimulus plan given the economic climate and budget picture; 3) efforts
to address the foreclosure crisis; and 4) a review of the international
agenda in light of potentially conflicting priorities (e.g., addressing
China's currency policies without compromising important bilateral
financial relationships).  

V.            Operations

We are working to ensure that both the D.C. and Chicago transition
headquarters have sufficient security measures to handle classified
documents, briefings, and phone calls.  We are also working with GSA to
ensure that email communications will be secure.

So far, we have submitted the names of about 70 people for interim
security clearances which will go into effect on November 5.  After
Election Day, we will submit additional names, including the names of
any administration nominees.

VI.          Miscellaneous   

We understand that both the New York Times and Washington Post have top
reporters working on stories about the transition planning efforts.  We
have instructed our team, once again, not to speak to reporters.

The board, staff, and working group chairs will meet again on October 24
for a half-day meeting.  We have asked all of the policy groups to
circulate drafts of their 20-page strategic option papers before this
meeting.  This Friday's meeting will be our last large, in-person
meeting before Election Day, although we have scheduled a three-hour
conference call for October 31.  In addition, all of the working groups
continue to hold weekly conference calls or meetings.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Chris Lu

[email-masked]

(312) 505-4864 (cell)