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Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.
JOE BIDEN’s White House is awfully crowded.
There are 560 people working in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) with salaries totaling nearly $50 million, according to disclosures released Thursday afternoon.
That’s more people than BARACK OBAMA or DONALD TRUMP’s White Houses, according to a review of their annual disclosures. Neither of those previous two White Houses ever cracked 500 people on the payroll. (The Biden White House payroll is about the same as the Obama White House’s payroll in its first year, adjusted for inflation, though.)
“The total number of employees and total salaries in this year’s report are indeed higher than in past recent reports,” a White House official acknowledged. “The White House increased the number of staff in [for fiscal year 2021] to support staffing the government through a transition and to meet the incredible needs that were apparent at the beginning of the Administration, most notably, the global pandemic.”
The staff levels are about more than just responding to the national crises, however. The large White House is indicative of how Biden has centralized a lot of policy making inside his West Wing rather than rely on his Cabinet, many of whom he has deployed as prominent surrogates.
JEFFREY ZIENTS and his 21-person team, for example, take the lead on Covid-19 more than Health and Human Services Secretary XAVIER BECERRA and the massive HHS bureaucracy.
GINA McCARTHY and her climate office are closer to Biden than the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, MICHAEL REGAN. The National Economic Council, the Council of Economic Advisers and the Domestic Policy Council are shaping the president’s economic policy agenda more than Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN.
Biden’s staff number is a bit inflated, as 36 people on the disclosure list are unpaid members of his Supreme Court Commission considering possible reforms of the high court. But even subtracting those staffers, his White House remains bigger than his immediate predecessors.
In some ways, Biden is just continuing the trend. The EOP started with just six advisers in 1939 but has gradually grown in size over the decades. RICHARD NIXON in particular was wary of career bureaucrats and bulked up the White House operation.
Biden’s fattening of his operations, however, also reflects a desire to make sure that allies — and he has many — are well rewarded and remain inside the tent. He has 21 Assistants to the President, or APs, the top rank in the arcane White House hierarchy. They include longtime confidantes like RON KLAIN, BRUCE REED and STEVE RICCHETTI. He also has brought close advisers on board at other levels.
Take NEERA TANDEN. After her nomination to head the Office of Management and Budget floundered, the president found a place for her as a senior adviser, even though he already had several people playing that role. The latest disclosures show Tanden earning a salary of $180,000. That’s a nice chunk of taxpayer change, but also a significant pay cut from what she was making as president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, where her 2019 salary was about $368,000 along with about $51,000 or so in “other compensation,” according to CAP's tax filing
The White House also released a fact sheet. Here are the stats they touted:
*Of senior staff, 56 percent are female.
*Of White House employees appointed during the Biden administration, women make up 60 percent of staff.
*Women earn $93,752 on average; men earn $94,639 on average.
*About 44 percent of Biden appointees are racially and/or ethnically diverse.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: West Wing Playbook will not publish on Monday, July 5. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Tuesday, July 6.
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PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA
With the Partnership for Public Service
What year was the first Fourth of July celebration on the National Mall televised?
(Answer at the bottom.)
The Oval
SCHMOOZING IS BACK — The White House communications team schmoozed with reporters at a White House Correspondents’ Association reception at the Washington Hilton on Wednesday night, including press secretary JEN PSAKI, deputy press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE and communications director KATE BEDINGFIELD. The WHCA hasn’t had an annual reception for two years due to the pandemic, so this was a little catch up effort.
All were good sports — and stayed for the entire event, which was moved indoors due to heat and rain. Psaki chatted with everyone, getting frequently interrupted in conversation to meet yet another reporter. Also spotted: press office chief of staff AMANDA FINNEY, deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES, rapid response director MIKE GWIN, deputy press secretary CHRIS MEAGHER, senior associate communications director MATT HILL, assistant press secretary EMILIE SIMONS, press assistants ANGELA PEREZ and MIKE KIKUKAWA and director of coalitions media JENNIFER MOLINA.
WHITE HOUSE <3’s ERIC ADAMS: While noting that the New York City mayoral election isn’t over, chief of staff RON KLAIN told the New York Times’ KARA SWISHER in an interview, "I think that the coalition that Mr. Adams put together in New York is not dissimilar to the coalition that President Biden put together. A coalition of working class voters. African American voters, overwhelmingly, and voters who want to see progress on core issues.”
“That's the coalition we continue to see as kind of the center of American politics,” Klain continued, “so that's not a surprise to me."
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: A MSNBC story written by STEVE BENEN about Democrats turning the tables on Republicans who had pushed “defund the police” hysteria.
“At the heart of the strategy is the Democrats’ American Rescue Plan ... Among the legislation’s many elements was funding for state and local governments, included to prevent public-sector layoffs in schools, fire departments, and police departments,” Benen wrote, in a story tweeted by deputy press secretary Andrew Bates.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: A story by our colleague BRIAN FALER that shows Democrats are having a hard time with Biden’s campaign promise not to hike taxes on those earning less than $400,000. That’s taking many of the usual methods, like raising the gas tax, off the table. The promise will likely be an ongoing problem as Democrats try to craft an expensive spending plan beyond the infrastructure package.
“It makes it more challenging for sure,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.). “There’s no question it limits your options.”
THE BUREAUCRATS
BIKING BUDDIES — Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG and Rep. RODNEY DAVIS went on a bike ride around Washington today, and apparently talked shop. The Illinois Republican is on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“Not a better way to talk transportation issues and share a few stories and laughs than a great bike ride with @SecretaryPete this morning,” Davis tweeted.
“We went from Capitol Hill to Gravelly Point Park,” Davis told West Wing Playbook. “Great ride and I overcame my fear of riding across bridges and rivers quickly!”
Buttigieg’s office said the Transportation secretary borrowed his husband CHASTEN’s bike. Buttigieg’s famous commuter hybrid got a flat over the weekend on the Washington and Old Dominion trail and he hasn’t had time to fix it. The two stayed out of the way “of the faster and more committed cyclists,.” Davis said.
What We're Watching
Playbook co-author RYAN LIZZA will interview White House senior adviser ANITA DUNN on POLITICO Live Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
What We're Reading
White House launches ‘surge response’ teams to delta variant hot spots, (Washington Post’s Dan Diamond)
Exxon lobbyist caught on video talking about undermining Biden’s climate push (NPR’s Jeff Brady)
Bill Clinton defends Harris chief of staff Tina Flournoy (CNBC’s Brian Schwartz)
Where's Joe
The president and the first lady JILL BIDEN traveled to Miami, visiting the site of the Surfside condo collapse. Dunn and assistants to the president JEN O’MALLEY DILLON, ANNIE TOMASINI and ANTHONY BERNAL accompanied the pair.
The two met with the incident commander, first responders and local and state leaders, including Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS. They also met with families of victims of the collapse at the St. Regis Hotel in Miami.
Where's Kamala
No public events scheduled.
The Oppo Book
When Biden’s economic adviser JARED BERNSTEIN worked in the Obama administration, he would frequent a mess hall in the West Wing to snag some fresh cookies.
He recalled in a 2018 Manhattan School of Music alumni interview that one day, he was waiting in line to get some of those cookies when he saw former first lady MICHELLE OBAMA behind him.
Seeing the first lady, who championed health and wellness initiatives, Bernstein quickly changed his mind about his culinary objective.
“I ordered an apple instead, proving that peer pressure works,” he explained.
Someone, give Jared a cookie please.
Trivia Answer
1947.
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