Advancing the President's Agenda

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Donald Devine

Former Director of the Office of Personnel Management

The Washington Post labeled Donald Devine as Ronald Reagan's "terrible swift sword of the civil service" when he served as Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during President Reagan's first term, The New York Times called him "the Grinch," and the Federal Times titled him the "Rasputin of the reduction in force – all because he helped cut 100,000 bureaucratic jobs and save over $6 billion reducing generous benefits.
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James Bacon

former special assistant to the president, presidential personnel office

James Bacon has previously worked at the Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Development. Now in the Presidential Personnel Office, he is the right-hand man to John McEntee, the director of the Presidential Personnel Office. The previous person in Bacon's role was Katja Bullock, who began working for the White House during the Reagan administration. McEntee, who is 29, is in charge of instilling loyalists to the Trump White House, according to Politico.

How Cabinet Government is Supposed to Work

  • Cabinet secretaries should have regular meetings with the President
  • Accurately communicate the President’s instructions to the team below you
  • Agency offices should work closely with their counterparts at the White House
    • Example: The White House Communications Office should utilize each agency’s public relations office to get messaging out
    • This avoids bureaucratic bloating at the White House with separates the agency principals from the President and his top aides
  • The agency, not the White House staff, has the legal authority to implement the President’s directives
    • The White House staff should provide top-level direction but the real work needs to be done at the agency level

Orienting New Political Appointees

  • Working in the federal government is nothing like working in the private sector
    • There is no profit and loss system to assess outcomes
    • You MUST take time to personally determine what’s happening at the bureaucratic levels beneath you
    • Delegate less, follow up more
  • The best way to assess what’s going on beneath you is to staff every level of the bureaucracy with political appointees
    • This will ensure that actions can be delegated and that you, as the principal, are well briefed

Your Actions & the Media

  • Don’t let the media dictate your actions
    • When the media hits you, remind yourself that you’re there to make a difference for the country, not to avoid controversy
  • Don’t expect that a career employee’s first loyalty is to you
  • Keep your agenda close
    • Keep in mind that nearly every action you take will eventually become public. Before doing something, think about how it would look on the front page of the Washington Post
    • Don’t share your agenda widely within your department. It will inevitably leak
    • The Washington Post (and other legacy media) have contacts at every agency

Identifying Successful Political Appointees

  • Successful appointees are willing to take risks and not just go with the flow
  • Successful appointees are willing to stand up to the media
  • The best place to find these candidates is in the campaign (the earlier in the campaign the better)

Implementing the President’s Agenda at the Agency

  • Cabinet secretaries should report DIRECTLY to the President
  • It’s imperative for cabinet secretaries to develop a close working relationship with the President
  • Cabinet secretaries should be loyal to the President and support his or her agenda
    • Cabinet secretaries should constantly ask themselves “how would the President govern if he were here in charge of my agency?”

Have Confidence in Your Legal Authority to Act

  • Become a jailhouse lawyer - know the law regarding your agency
    • Study the legal authorities of your position
  • Always check the law being referenced by a career federal employee, especially if you are being told you cannot do something
  • Always ask questions and get a second opinion
  • There’s no substitute for knowing the law yourself
  • Have a lawyer on staff who is a political appointee

First Steps to Take as a Cabinet Secretary

  • On day one, you MUST rescind all delegations of authority to your subordinates
    • This will ensure no official below you can perform an official agency action without your approval
  • Place political appointees in the proper roles beneath you before day 1
    • Use the myriad tools at your disposal to clear the way of insubordinate careerists: reassign them, incentivize them, and as a last resort, fire them