Subject: draft briefing memo for this week - for your review
From: "Chris Lu" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:00:01 -0500

Weekly Transition Memo for Senator Obama

From:    Transition Advisory Board and Staff

Date:     August 17, 2008

I.             White House Meeting

This week, John Podesta and Melody Barnes met with White House Chief of
Staff Josh Bolten and other White House officials to begin discussions
about the transition process.

National Security - Arrangements are being made for intelligence
briefings after the convention and more expansive briefings after the
election.  We have requested additional security clearances for the
campaign staff.  In addition, homeland security exercises are being
prepared to share with our team during the transition period.

General Policy and Budget - Administration policy personnel are
preparing chronologies, timelines, 90 day critical paths and information
about relevant executive orders.  Immediately after the election, an
Administration team, including senior leaders, will be prepared to brief
our budget team.  The Administration also will prepare a skeletal
current services plus specific needs budget.   

Personnel - Within 15 days of the convention, OPM will provide a list of
presidential appointments and openings. Briefing books are being
prepared with organizational charts and descriptions of the agencies and
functions within the agencies.  The White House officials raised
concerns about the current White House personnel database.  We are
designing our database to be compatible with the White House system, but
Administration officials have suggested that it might be better to scrap
the current government system and start with a new one.

Confirmation Process - The White House is focused on working with us,
the McCain campaign, and the Senate to reach an agreement on an
expedited confirmation process, with a goal of confirming 100
appointments by the end of February.  Bolten would like all parties to
agree on which appointments fall within the top 100, and our sense is
that he believes these positions should be focused on Cabinet members
and national security positions.  We believe that our priority
appointments might not match those of the White House or the McCain
campaign. 

Agency Review - The White House is working on a clearance process that
will allow our agency teams to go into federal departments immediately
after the election.   

II.            Economic Policy Working Group

On our weekly call, we approved the work plan for the economic policy
group.  The goal of this group is to provide senior policy advisors with
clear, vetted policy options and recommendations for decisions to be
made during the first year of the new administration.  Over the next two
and a half months, the group will remain engaged with the campaign
policy staff without interfering with their day-to-day responsibilities.

The economic policy group will focus on these areas:  budget (including
taxes); stimulus/growth plan; trade; financial markets (including GSEs);
and other miscellaneous issues such as labor.  There will be team
leaders for each of these focus areas.  The work product of these teams
would be reviewed informally by a group of "wise men and women," such as
Paul Volcker and Larry Summers. 

Bill Daley is working with Josh Steiner on this economic working group.

III.           Code of Conduct

After much discussion, the board is close to approving a code of conduct
to govern people working on the transition.  This code of conduct is
based on the ethics principles you have stated during the campaign.
Among other things, the code of conduct would require the following:  

*         Disqualification from involvement in any particular matter in
which the individual has lobbied over the past 12 months or that poses a
financial conflict of interest, to the individual herself, or her family
members, partners, clients, or business associates. 

*         Prohibition on transition personnel lobbying federal agencies
over which they have substantial responsibility during the duration of
the transition.  For 12 months after serving on the transition,
personnel may not lobby a federal agency on any particular matter over
which the individual has had substantial responsibility.

*         A ban on receiving gifts from people seeking government
positions, federal employees, or other people with an interest in the
work of the transition.

*         A ban on federal lobbyists making financial contributions to
the transition or holding leadership positions on the transition

*         A ban on foreign agents working on the transition.

IV.       Next Meetings

The transition board and staff are scheduled to meet on August 25 in
Denver.  We will also meet again on September 2 in D.C. with working
group leaders.

 

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

Chris Lu

Obama for America

(312) 505-4864 (cell)