Subject: draft weekly memo to BO
From: "Chris Lu" <[email-masked]>
To: "John Podesta" <[email-masked]>, "Pete Rouse" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:22:05 -0500

Attached and pasted below:

Weekly Transition Memo for Senator Obama

From:   Transition Advisory Board and Staff

Date:    September 12, 2008

I.          Vice President-Elect Team

We have now constituted a new working group to help with the VP's transition.  That group will be headed by two long-time Biden associates, Mark Gitenstein and Ted Kaufman.  Mark and Ted have reached out to the agency review team to ensure that people in the Biden circle are included in that process, in particular in the areas of national security and justice.  In addition, Mark and Ted will be talking to the national security policy group.

II.         Working Groups

All six of the major policy teams (national security, health care, education, energy, economy, and immigration) are on track to produce draft policy papers by the end of September that will be reviewed by the transition board.  Within each of these broader areas, subgroups are being set up to address specific issues.  For instance, the national security group (headed by Susan Rice, Jim Steinberg, and Sarah Sewall) has established subgroups such as: Afghanistan/Pakistan; Iran; Middle East peace process and the Gulf; intelligence/counter-terrorism/homeland security; and national security law.

We have four full-time research assistants who are cataloguing the campaign policy promises in about 50 major areas.  We also have a very large team of outside lawyers and consultants that is assisting the agency review team in researching specific federal agencies (e.g., budgets, personnel, rulemaking).

The first family transition group set up a meeting in Chicago this week for Michelle and Ann Stock, the social secretary during the Clinton Administration.

III.       Executive Orders

The policy groups and agency review teams are analyzing executive orders and possible administrative action that can be taken quickly in their areas after Inauguration Day.  We also will be convening a team of lawyers headed by Todd Stern to take a broader look at how to organize this process on a government-wide basis.

IV.       Pre-Clearance of Nominees and Transition Staff

We are in the process of getting FBI security clearances for transition staff, particularly in the area of national security, so we can hit the ground running on November 5.  

We also have met with the Office of Government Ethics about confidentially assisting potential nominees with completing their financial disclosure reports.  As you probably know, completing these forms properly can be a painstaking process, particularly for wealthy individuals who may be required divest certain holdings before entering government service.

IV.       Operations

We are mocking up a website that would go live on November 5.  The idea is to carry over many of the same technological advances from the campaign to the transition in an effort to maximize public participation in the transition.  The website also would allow the submission of resumes.  

Behind the website is a personnel database that would process the resumes and allow us to search for candidates to fill positions.  The White House has determined that the current personnel database is inadequate to meet its needs and has agreed to put a new system in place for the new Administration.  This week, we met with the White House and the McCain campaign, and we believe we are close to an agreement of what system to use.

In the area of facilities, we are currently looking at two transition spaces:  a Washington, D.C. headquarters where most of the staff will be located; and a Chicago office where you could hold meetings with potential nominees.  Our assumption is that most nomination announcements would be done in Chicago, in which case we will need to plan for a location to hold press conferences.  The tentative Chicago space is the federal building where your Senate office is located.

V.        Miscellaneous

We have made the decision not to disclose the existence of our 501(c)(4) and the names of our donors until we are asked by the press.  This may happen in short order, however, since Time magazine has reported that William Timmons is assisting the McCain campaign with its transition.  Timmons worked in the Nixon and Ford Administrations and assisted Reagan and George W. Bush with their transitions.  He is also a prominent D.C. lobbyist and has registered to lobby on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute, the American Medical Association, Chrysler, Freddie Mac, Visa USA, and Anheuser-Busch.  At the end of the Time story, there is a mention that John Podesta is assisting your transition efforts.

 

 

 

 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Lu
[email-masked]
312-505-4864 (cell)