for the president of the united states, that includes the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. ,n order to make good decisions a president need to have access to good information. by good information, i mean information that is accurate, accurate and up-to-date and presented clearly. president obama has benefited from that. it the american people have benefited from that. the intelligence community needs to be able to operate without fear of richard fusion for presenting bad news. as a result of the global event, it's important to the intelligence community for these professionals that are dedicating their life for the

protection of the united states are not subject to richard b because the person reading the briefing may not want to hear bad news. >> it sounds like the president is concerned that the president-elect is not taking -- josh: the country has benefited from his ability to make good decisions based on good information is. the president-elect will have to develop his own routine.

the first time this issue arose in the briefing room, i made clear that this is an issue that the chinese government considers to be highly sensitive. it prohibits you from disrupting this policy. it could have a disruptive to workn our ability with china in those areas where the interests align. that reflects the high priority.

>> last, ask you about this notion of what is going on. this false flag. even people talk about hacking by russia, they talk about this issue or that issue and some nine democrats and one that they elector would like to see the intel breakdown of what happened. among a short of it is that people are suggesting that there are some out there that are trying to delegitimize the election of president-elect trump.

can you understand why they might have that perspective? josh: i think what i can account and thehe conduct being used by the white house and the president of the united states. in less than 12 hours after the election results were in, president obama was standing in the rose garden committing his administration and his own personal effort to executing a smooth and effective transition. and for the benefit of the country, and so the president-elect -- he could sit with him and the level for 90 minutes.

they articulated their shared commitment. the actions make clear his to fulfilling his institutional responsibility. president.incoming

>> what i want to know is if .hat report >> there is an executive summary and had been declassified and released. ultimately, determining what can be released. theink that the hope is opportunity for the american public to consider the findings of the report and learn some lessons.

josh: we wage this debate on a number of occasions. and at least one official has been nominated to a fear who had expressed the same kinds of views that are included in that report.

in that effectiveness of torturing terror suspects. the president is going to sign the 21st century tours act. that ceremony has been pretty rare around here. obama has done fewer than his immediate predecessors. is that an indication that the president feels the legislative --omplishments josh: it's an indication there has been very little passed by congress under the leadership that is worthy of the signing ceremony. when not going to have a ceremony for a post office naming. when you take a look at what , there are apassed

variety of metrics you can use, to show that the most recent has beenn-led congress as ineffectual as any in history. one metric for that is to look at bills that president obama has vetoed. there aren't many. it's not as if republicans use their significant majorities in the house and senate to pass bills cracking down on illegal immigration or slashing business tax cuts or slashing business taxes. taxes for wealthy people. all things republicans claim they support and campaigned on getting done. what they have done is passed a

that do nothing away obamastrip administration initiatives. veto ant obama had to bill pastor reconciliation that would've repeal be affordable care act. republicans would have repealed regulations governing clean air and clean water and labor regulations. advancing their own agenda, they are just trying to take away the presidents. and underscores the intellectual vacuum at the center of the republican party. a president that many of them doubt shares their conservative philosophy.

it has been overwritten by republicans in congress. to address the concerns that president obama had raised in vetoing the bill. i think it's an indication of the governing agenda has been. they have not been many signing ceremonies and not many vetoes.

>> the presidencies for their obama and these are be one of the last bills. is the president most proud of as a legislative accomplishment? is he disappointed that he was not able to fulfill the promises, legislatively? there is no doubt be president has been deeply disappointed at the lack of effort put forward by republicans to try to find common ground where it actually exists. president has been profoundly disappointed that republicans in the house of representatives blocked consideration of a bipartisan immigration reform bill that upld have passed had it come for a vote but house republicans made a cynical clinical decision

to prevent that bill from even being considered. in the president is quite disappointed by that. overall, the kind of legislative ,rogress we were able to make the president's resume looks quite strong even when viewed over the span of eight years. it was a remarkably productive period. the recovery act that contributed to the president's strategy to prevent a second great depression. the affordable care for 20 million americans. street. of wall that has ensured that taxpayers are never on the hook for bailing out a wall street bank

from making risky bets. the time it has been signed into law, we have seen a remarkable, impressive economic growth, job creation, and an increase in the stock market. there is one other example that is also relevant here. is something republicans have blocked for almost 20 years, getting them to raise income taxes. congress did vote to raise income taxes on the wealthiest americans. and it was a fulfillment of the promise and it made a positive impact on the deficit and on the in ourof the fairness

tax code. there are metrics we can use to evaluate the was in the this strategy. i hope you will go back and take , these look at the impact strength that the american economy enjoyed. and see if the performance of the next administration measures up. i expect it will be the last bill he signs in public but maybe they will pass something quickly and interesting when they return in january. i don't anticipate that will happen. >> do you think the incoming president has any reason to doubt the intelligence of the briefing?

the people that are presenting the briefing are people who are seasoned intelligence professionals. they are experts in their field. in some cases, they are individuals who have a remarkable educational background or academic background. they are experts in technology. the intelligence professionals that compile the presidential daily briefing worked very hard to do so. they ensure that the president has the most accurate and up-to-date information possible in order to make good decisions about the country and our national security. there are occasions where the

president wants to have the discussion from some of the cia why theyto understand have reached certain conclusions or why they are putting forward analysis. it means the president is asking questions in the intelligence community can come back to him to further explain what is being presented. the president has never doubted the motives of the people presenting that information. that's because the president has insisted the intelligence presented to him is accurate and up-to-date and not influenced by politics. and not presented in a way that seems to curry favor with the person receiving the briefing. if the news is bad somewhere in the world, the president wants to know. so that we can have an opportunity to try to address it. that's why it's particularly important that intelligence professionals, as they have been, understand it will not

face retribution just because they present some bad news. in some ways, that's the whole point of the exercise. to make sure the president understands the dangerous and threatening things that could be happening around the world so that we can properly orient our defenses to protect the american people. president-elect trump having it in the cia right now. josh: from the hard-working professionals that they look through the night. making decisions that were rooted in the decisions and the outcomes were going to be

better. >> they mentioned certain ties they didn'that disclose financial ties to russia. josh: there is a judgment that

people might have drawn upon. these are objective facts that are not produced by the white house and the intelligence community. they don't require a special security clearance. thereedge -- is certainly ample information whateople to consider russia's motives may have been in undertaking this unprecedented, malicious cyber activity. >> easy relevance based on russia's motivations and not going the other way. josh: winnie say going the other

way, what do you mean? >> that they are not relevant because it was a possibility of them working together. josh: i can't speak to that. when i am merely presenting is that as people consider this question about whether or not russia was seeking, intentionally, the benefit the , my responses i don't have an assessment from the intelligence community to share with you. but there is ample information people can and should use that was available before the it will allow people to reach their own conclusions. >> we talked about donald trump there was no evidence. your response was that there shouldn't be a question there. the fact that he does

repeatedly say this? josh: out of want to get to a get to- i don't want to a place where there are charges and countercharges. he most important priority is fulfilling the institutional obligation. you have the argument put forward by the president-elect and you have the statement put forward by the intelligence ago,nity two months revealing their unanimous conclusion that russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity in an attempt to destabilize our clinical system. any risks in donald trump's statement refuting the evidence of the intelligence community? josh: there are any number of

risks i could express but the time for those debates have come and gone. there were some days when there was no listing on the schedule that we receive for the president. >> those are days in which the writing toented in the president. there is a mechanism for the kind of feedback that i was referring to earlier that if the president has questions, there one that requires face-to-face interaction. >> on the days in which there is not a pdb listed, typically what

occurs is the president would see it in written format. >> he expected to have it speak with president obama that day. josh: we protect the ability of the president and president-elect to we protect tf the president and president-elect to confer privately. i can't confirm it. they are certainly entitled to that. i'll do my best. >> did the president wait up friday night to sign this? josh: i believe that's right. it was signed by hand shortly before you received the official notification.

it was late night on friday night. we will see you tomorrow. >> with heard about reports of russian hacking and mitch mcconnell says he condemns russian breaches and that he supports the senate committee opening investigations. here is some of what he had to say. >> from what you understand -- [indiscernible] >> i think it pretty thoroughly what i was prepared to say across this issue. support the commission in any way?

>> we will follow the regular order. it's an important subject. we will review it on a bipartisan basis. >> the obama administration reset with russia, does it likewise concern you, the signals coming from the new administration of a different friendliness?re >> the russians are not our friends. crimea, some of our friends met with the delegation in the baltic countries. to say they are nervous about the russians, they put it mildly. we intend to keep the commitments made in the nato agreement. any objective standard,

it's the most successful military alliance in world history and i think we got to approach all of these issues on the assumption that the russians do not wish us well. differing with trump, says he has the highest confidence in intelligence agencies. unlesstrump tweeting, you catch hackers in the act, it's hard to determine who was doing the hacking. why wasn't this brought up before the election. being a look at the scene outside trump tower. we will watch some of the activity in midtown manhattan.

[chanting]

[chanting] this is what democracy looks like! this is what democracy looks like! fear!hate, no immigrants are welcome here! no hate, no fear! immigrants are welcome here!

[chanting]

>> we are here to support women's rights. in light of everything that's happened. we are here to show that it matters. there are things that are not right.

>> we are here to support this. it is not too late. the electoral college can still do the right thing. >> and a look inside trump tower. congresswoman cathy mcmorris rodgers. a

>> congresswoman cathy mcmorris rodgers under consideration for treasury secretary. we will head back outside trump tower. take a look at the scene there. [chanting]

[indiscernible]

>> women's rights are under attack, what do we do? stand up, fight back! women's rights are under attack, what do we do? stand up, fight back!

just outside trump tower, we

will take you back inside to the lobby. congresswoman cathy mcmorris rodgers here. >> it was really good. it we talked a lot about issues and about how we can work on western issuest are being listened to. it was a great meeting. i want to help this administration anyway that i can. we have an opportunity to have a new administration that will hit the ground running and there are

a lot of things where i can help. we need to look at -- i don't know exactly what people are saying. it you have the cia that keeps -- but we have not been briefed. i would like to hear what information they have. thank you very much.

>> just a look inside the lobby at trump tower. watch some of the activity in midtown manhattan. [chanting] [indiscernible]

>> show me what democracy looks like. >> this is what democracy looks like. [chanting]

>> we are the popular vote. we are the popular vote. [chanting]

>> my pussy, my choice! my pussy, my choice! [chanting] >> and again, from outside that fifth avenue.t's we will go inside and check out the lobby and the cameras there shooting the scene for us today.

and we are going to head back outside trump tower in new york city.

>> climate change is real! climate change is real! [chanting] >> show me what democracy looks like! >> this is what democracy looks like! >> show me what democracy looks like! >> this is what democracy looks like! [chanting]

>> now is the season to say no to treason. now is the season to say no to treason. [chanting] >> we will check back here at trump tower later today. we will head to capitol hill for a brief pro forma session in the u.s. house.

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., december 12, 2016. i hereby appoint the honorable david young to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray.

gracious and merciful god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. in this chamber where the people's house gathers, we pause to offer you gratitude for the gift of this good land on which we live and for this great nation which you have inspired in developing over so many years. continue to inspire the american people that through the difficulties of these days we might keep liberty and justice alive in our nation and in the world. during this season of holy days for so many americans, give to us and all people a vivid sense of your presence that we may learn to understand each other, to respect each other, to work with each other, to live with each other and to do good to each other. so shall we make our nation

great in goodness and good in its greatness. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory. amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 2-a of the house resolution 944, the journal of the last day's proceedings is approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. pursuant to clause 4 of rule 1, the following enrolled bills were signed by the speaker pro term harris on december 9, 2016. the clerk: h.r. 2028, senate 1632, senate 2974, senate 3028,

senate 3183. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house the ollowing communications. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to section 3-b of the public safety officer medal of valor act of 2001, 42 united states code 15202, i am pleased to appoint jo ann hayes-white of san francisco, california, to the medal of valor review board. thank you for your consideration of this appointment. signed sincerely, nancy pelosi, democratic leader. the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on december 9, 2016, at 11:25 p.m. that the senate concurs in the

amendment of the house to the amendment of the senate h.r. 2028. with best wishes signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message received the following message from the secretary of the senate on december 12, 2016, at 9:41 a.m. that the senate passed with an amendment h.r. 5602, that the senate passed with amendments h.r. 3842, that the senate agreed to house concurrent resolution 183, appointments, advisory committee on international exchange rate policy, united states economic review commission. with best wishes i am signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house

of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on december 12, 2016, at 12:49 p.m. that the senate passed senate 3346. that the senate passed senate 3021. that the senate passed senate 8. that the senate passed senate 290. that the senate passed senate 1831. that the senate passed senate 3112. that the senate passed senate 1168. that the senate passed senate 1776. that the senate passed senate 2852. that the senate agreed to senate concurrent resolution 57. that the senate agreed to without amendment house concurrent resolution 181. that the senate agreed to the amendment of the house senate 612. with best wishes i am signed incerely, karen l. haas.

the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of 2 -- rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on december 12, 2016, at 1:12 p.m. that the senate concurs in house amendment to the bill senate 546. that the senate concurs in house amendment to the bill senate 1635. that the senate passed senate 2781. that the senate passed senate 3086. that the senate passed senate 3336. that the senate passed without amendment house concurrent resolution 179. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 6416. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5889. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5877. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5798. that the senate passed without

amendment h.r. 5687. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5676. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5591. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5356. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5309. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5150. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5065. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 5015. signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on december 12, 2016, at 1:48 p.m. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 4887. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 4618.

that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 3784. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 3218. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 2726. that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 960. that the senate passed with an amendment h.r. 710. that the senate passed with an amendment h.r. 1150. that the senate passed with an amendment h.r. 4245. that the senate passed with an amendment h.r. 4939. that the senate passed with amendments h.r. 6302. with best wishes i am signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 2-b of house resolution 944.

hosted by the brookings institution at the university center. have some flavor of what life could be like in the first year. like a triphing down memory lane to try and understand the kinds of administration has in its first year that the trump administration in particular will face come january 20 when president trump is sworn in. we have an action-packed program today to do with the various presidential leadership in the first year, from domestic to foreign policy

to bureaucratic and organizational challenges. i am happy to have the withtunity to partner both daryl, scholars here at brookings, and in particular center.l and the miller bill is well known to us because for 10 years, he was the managing director of this institution before he became the ceo at the miller center. i will introduce him now and he will introduce the overall program, particularly work on presidential transitions. , here he came to brookings worked at the white house where he was director of international , the nationalrs

security council, and the national economic council. his responsibility is included planning and negotiating for the g-8 summit. he also served as deputy director of the white house climate change task force before going to the state department where he was on the policy planning staff and the bureau of economic affairs. well-equipped in terms lead inwn experience to terms of presidential first years. welcome. it is wonderful to have you back here in brooklyn. thank you for the conference. [applause] bill: thanks. it is wonderful to be back. great to see so many faces in the crowd and the hallways.

this is a home away from home. the first year is real, it is a eriod ofendar driven p time baked into our because ofnal system an observation lyndon johnson made it you get one year because after the first year of aboutss, they stop inking you as president and start thinking about their own reelection which comes a year later. that drives two things in the political transition. agenda.he domestic if you want to pass things legislatively, you have to work with congress, whether that is the president of a different party of congress or other outsider presidents from one party who control both houses of , sometimes they succeeded and sometimes, they struggled. jimmypresidents such as carter and bill clinton struggled in their first year.

side, national security it is an omen for significant change, and also because of the relative experience of the team working with one another, it is .ften a moment of crisis we saw that in 9/11 and bill clinton's first year when al qaeda attacked the twin towers. people often forget the trump problem was in the first year of the clinton administration. policies gone astray, the day of takes, the shootdown of the spy plane over china, or a failed coup in panama which caught the first bush administration by's price. out of those crises often become a team whining. team responded definitely to the fall of the alert -- berlin wall. looking atn presidential history for the last year and a half, preparing

for this moment. i want to show you a short video and get right into the three terrific panels we have assembled today. [video clip] [drum roll] ♪ >> and extraordinary democratic moment occurs with the peaceful transfer of power in america. ♪

>> thomas jefferson in his first inaugural address referred to his presidency as a post above his talents. jefferson humbled himself before the magnitude of the undertaking. it takes one year for a new here tot to go from here. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. >> history teaches us the president's office is crucial, a time of dangerous peril an exceptional opportunity. >> a problem for u.s. forces has been controlling the streets. >> he was wounded. >> i can hear you. >> the real world test, the untested commander in chief, and the new president must act.

it is also one presidents can an act to their enduring policies. >> the civil rights act of 1964. >> whether renewing america's, set home or makingit is also onn act historic racers on the world stage. as the inauguration day 2017 approaches, our responsibility is to look beyond, prepare for the new president passes pivotal first year in office. presidenthe 45th staff a cabinet, prioritize and agenda and act on it? what risks and rewards dwell on the horizon? the miller center has launched a nonpartisan effort to research the pressing challenges and take those ideas directly to the presidential candidates and their staffs, opinion leaders, and the public at large. projectt year eliminates the major issue areas . public events, digital components, and vigorous

promotion and communication strategies. we are connecting history with policy and impact. >> how are you feeling? >> i'm feeling pretty good. >> what is the trouble? >> well i got a little bit with the congress and a little bit with china and the vietnamese. a little of it all over the country. i thought i would call you and get a little inspiration. >> the miller center specializes in studying the institution of the presidency. we apply the lessons of history to contemporary public policy challenges, helping to understand and shaped the modern presidency. our scholars conducted comprehensive oral histories for every administration since president carter, creating a living network of the most

senior officials who have led our active branch. the miller center brings the lessons of history to life and connects the past to the future. >> to dive into this, we have assembled three panels today that combine the terrific of our own scholars but also partners like the brookings institution. almost 10 scholars across brookings particularly from where i had the pleasure of being a senior fellow here. our thanks to darrell and his home team. colleagues, the first principles, we are delighted to have two people who successfully did the last transition from the bush to the obama

administrations. that will be moderated by my friend and colleague, barbara. for -- after that, a panel on moving a domestic agenda and organizing global challenges. to barbaraed over and her counterparts for the first panel. barbara: while our colleagues are being mike, thank you, bill, so much. thank you all for being here today. i was telling bill this was my first visit to brookings, though i feel like i have been here due to the political scientists.

i'm forever tuning in to and watching the brookings panel. it is such an honor to be moderating a panel here today for the miller center. as you can see from the program, we have an amazing group of scholars and practitioners who have served in four different presidencies. case of josh, bush 41 and chris, currently deputy secretary of labor in the obama administration, and elaine of the clinton administration, we represent four presidencies. we want to dive right into the subject of today, particularly as bill announced, the title of the panel is first years and first principles. all of you had the amazing experience of being a part of the presidency in the first year.

as well.ou after that we want to start off today with that very intriguing question. how does a president-elect go from being a campaigner to a short window of opportunity of then startnt-elect, the first year of his presidency. we will start with you. >> i can say in one would they do that poorly. democrat or republican, it is not a partisan state and i will explain it with statistics. there are just over 4000 jobs the president has to appoint in the federal government. of those, only a little over 1000 are the big ones confirmed by the senate. even that is a big number. it is really the 700 to 800. a couple hundred of those are

appointments to boards and things like that. you're looking at 700 to 800 people to run the military about 4 million people. it is impossible. one thing a president has to quickly figure out, is, what is the thing he has inherited? whenever a big blowup happens, guess who gets blamed? president obama was not in charge of writing code for the health care website. but i promise you the american people looked at him and said, uh oh, you screwed up. jimmy carter did not fly helicopters into the desert but that came back to get him. george bush was not delivering ice in new orleans, but that was a big black mark on his

presidency. is presidents tend to ignore the vast government they run, then the government was it up and surprise, they get blamed. because the american people think the president is the boss. the first thing the president should do is figure out what the thing is an understand that in any given point in time, an organization that consists of 7 million people, two things are happening simultaneously. right,ng is going very rightave got the intelligence on this problem, and the right expertise. at the same time, something else is going very wrong. they are understaffed and something is about to blow up. i will end with an anecdote i

used in one of the chapters in my book and it goes back to the fall of 2013. on december 13, two days from 2013, there were two repairing an space misfiring heating and cooling system as an in -- at the international space system. they were floating around in space suits, doing something that for most of -- for most of us, would be inconceivable. earlier, the obama administration was facing the collapse of the meltdown in his health care website. in october of 2013, november and december, everybody started writing, the government, what a mess. they cannot do anything, to allergy, blah blah blah.

of course, the same government in the same session, have these two guys up in space wondering around, whatever they were doing. the fact of the matter is, at the centers for medicare and medicaid and at nasa, federal bureaucrats had contracted the to do asector companies job the government wanted done. at nasa, a company western massachusetts makes space suits. go figure. they make the spacesuits that these guys were wearing. in other words, it was not any different. it is just that at any time, something was going right and something was going wrong. presidents generally figured this out when it is too late. discover their campaign skills of messaging, tweeting, speechmaking, rallies, your campaign skills do not help

you when the government has blown up in your face, which is behooves presidents to spend a little less time wandering around the country, theirlittle more time in first year figuring out what is happening in the government that they are the head of. an example of things going up makes me think of a first-year fiasco as it was called, the takes innovation. that certainly blowup in president kennedy's face. he went on national television and said, i take responsibility for this. i am the responsible officer of the government. his opinion poll rating soared 83%. there might be a lesson. if people will blame you anyway, take responsibility and it might work in your favor. let me go to josh in chronological order.

a little bit about the fact you were with him throughout the campaign as the head of policy and then part of the transition because of the bush versus gore controversy. >> thank you. thank you for doing the program and the work you do. it is an important public service. fortune of being a part of the bush campaign, the bush 2000 presidential campaign, which began at the beginning of 1999, almost two full years before the election, i arrived in austin, texas, as the policy director of the bush campaign. i know you started early in the obama campaign.

way you startrst to build a presidency that could withstand the difficult time of transition that the president faces. bush and governor bush said something interesting to me on my first day when i arrived in austin. i met him in his gubernatorial office. he said, go out and do a smart remember onest thing. i want to campaign the way i govern and govern the way i campaigned. as a presidential candidate ought to begin a campaign that life. i doubt whether you use the same kinds of words, but i that president obama said much the same ring. what he was telling me and the

was build astaff campaign, build a policy structure that is something i can take into the white house and implement, because what i say on the road is what i will do when i am in the oval office. blessed in the bush campaign with having a campaign essentially a staff that was itself ready to move into governance. i was a policy director and begin the deputy of chief of policy.r owl was the chief political strategist and became the strategist in the white house. hughes was the head communicator and she became the head of communications in the white house. when you have built a good campaign team that is ready to move into the white house, you are able to mitigate another

source of great disruption during transitions, which is a total changeover in personnel. very often, campaign people are not good governance people and vice versa. in building a campaign and building a government, i think presidents ought to look for both. so we were unusually blessed. we had only half of the usual transition because of the recount in florida. yet i we came in with only 37 days worth of a transition, in a much better condition to know who was going to be in government, along with president bush, and what the agenda was here and we had a 450 page out.y book of spells it my concern for the current

transition is that they are not in that sort of position. there is not a thick policy agenda with detail to it. there are certainly inclinations and directions and so on, which is what the public pays attention to and it worked very well or president-elect trump. bige is also not the infrastructure of people ready to move in with him. it is incumbent upon all of us, including through processes like these, to help what is a difficult situation for the best prepared, for those that are coming behind us. the fact that the outgoing bush 43 administration chris, withclosely, the transition team for president obama. smooth the transition is as possible. chris: in every setting like

this, i, josh for the tone and he and president bush set. [laughter] in 2007 for pledging full cooperation with the incoming president regardless of which party it was. the success we enjoyed in 2008 is in large measure because of the cooperation we received. transitionough issues all 77 days. level of collaboration with president obama'successor. on balance, i think you're doing that. it is challenging. it is fair to say there is a playbook of how you transition from campaigning to governing. the president-elect is ripping that up. whether with foreign policy statements and tweets, the carrier deal, there are a lot of things here that we have not seen before. it will be interesting to see

or not.the changes i suspect not. it will be an interesting ride for all of us. barbara: let's turn to governing itself. let's say we have gone through the transition. you have situations as in the case of president bush 43, where he had a clear agenda in the campaign. to say i want to govern the way i campaigned makes for what seems to me a fairly's transition to priorities nation policy topics and policy issues. i wonder if you could talk a little bit about president clinton and his prioritization and what he brought in as a priority and what might have begun to be imposed upon him by events. elaine: well he had a similar goodg, josh, is saying was

government is good politics. if you get it all going right. the most i think important thing he did was the very first budget in the first year, which, he got a lot of grief for. it costs us some congressional seats, etc.. but it was critical in setting byon the road to what was the seventh year a balanced budget, the first and only time we have had a balanced budget in many decades. there was a clear direction and he understood that was the most important thing he had to do. like reagan before him, reagan is the only other president i know who got this right, they understood that macro economic policy is a very blunt instrument and it takes a long time. tough, uglydo the stuff. you have to do it in your first year.

with the firstt budget deal and the first reconciliation deal. his firstgan with budget deal. by 1984, it was morning in america. i remember this well. i was working for walter mondale and that was a pretty depressing campaign to work in. by 1996, i mean, we had incredibly low unemployment and all sorts of things that become of -- that presidents want to have. the tough things early is really the most important thing. then, of course, getting used to running a government, in my book, i talk about a scene that i witnessed between outdoor and bill clinton. it was one of the awkward things where there were a lot of people in the oval office and they all went off into betty's office on the side. there was a traffic jam so i was

the last one and i could not get out. obviously, al gore wanted to say something to bill clinton. i stupidly stood there trying to pretend i was not there. got to watch al gore say to clinton, you must say this, this, this, and this. it was a foreign policy question. to clinton who was the best and lips beach maker in american history, this is one place you do not as lived . because foreign policy have resources in the world will purchase them and usually diplomats will work it out, whether medicaid or welfare or something like this.

is a lot of learning and sometimes very counterintuitive. i do not know who will tell that to president-elect trump. himbody will need to say to . i cannot know when he will learn that precision in language matters, that when you are the president, there are consequences to what you say. and that the freewheeling, you run, campaign that he has which has had many electoral advantages, will be a problem in governing. they all go through it to a certain extent but they all have some inkling of something. the current transition is not usual. to say the least. chris, could you tell us about transitioning into policymaking, the links to the campaign agenda, which has health care reform at the top for president

obama, but coming into office with an ongoing crisis, an meltdown in the financial world. chris: we started transition planning in april 2008 at we were focused on immigration, education, health care, a whole meltdown in the financial world. range of issues. by the time we took office on the 20th of 2009, the only issue was the economy. i recall the first jobs number we got february of 2009. , moread lost 2000 jobs than south carolina. no matter wells i campaigned on, the number one governing principle had to be getting the economy of and running. weeks after inauguration day, congress passed a stimulus package. vice president biden oversaw the recovery act, it was to get the money out the door as quickly as possible with as little waste and fraud and abuse is possible.

at that time, we had a couple of cabinet members confirmed and not many around them. the ability to get a hundred dollars out the door was in large measure because of the lear leadership who understood these are the programs you can put money into that will have the greatest impact as possible. there is often a criticism of the ability to quickly and drive through change. , you cannotarly accomplish anything unless you have clear leadership behind you. that brings me to josh and president george w. bush. again, a very clear agenda .oming into office talk about how he implemented the agenda and to chris and executiveoint, agencies and in congress, and others in congress. >> president bush came into

office having published two books for policy in his campaign. 2008,s july and august of 400 pages long, detailed policy pagehes and in five or six fact sheets with all the speeches. you could tell a policy direction and philosophy or principal from a speech. you have got the numbers, you have got the programmatic details, in the fact sheets. when we came into the white house in january of 2001, we did not have to have a lot of readings about, what are the policies the president wants to implement. we did not face a crisis around the door.

we have policies that were well designed. he had advice from economic advisers to the effect that the recession is likely on the way. we were not confused about the -- policy priorities. no one will remember this, president bush campaigned on being the education president. that was his intent when he came in. in fact, campaigned against al gore on the notion that the clinton administration had by foreigndistracted activities and nation building wasthe bush administration

not going to dissipate in that sort of activity. aam probably anticipating further question about how events change. the perspective of every president, they always do. that gave us the opportunity to focus. president bush did one other i think was generally regarded as having been a shortcoming of the clinton administration the way in the door. short coming of the trump administration. that is, focus on the white house. there is a tendency in every transition to focus on the big shiny objects, the big cabinet posts. those are absolutely critically important. electscauses president

in their senior team to neglect the construction of the white house staff, which actually is the elects in their senior group that wille critical presidential priorities. the government that elaine described so well in her set of remarks, was pretty resilient. some would say impervious. but it is very capable of on ang itself, at least steady state, without substantial political leadership. whereonly on those issues the president really wants to take the country in a particular direction, especially a new direction, where the presidential leadership council lot.

typically that comes from the white house. they do not have to be big public figures. the phones home the president andgs in the white house, empowers to drive the initiatives, are the key appointments early on in a presidency. i think those especially familiar with the governments have to affect that aspect of the early part of the transition. >> one of my favorite stories >> one of my favorite stories doing the oral history for bush 43 at the miller center, everything from jimmy carter really starting with gerald -- gerald for. public record, and this might be an election for president trump, and that is bush 43 invited 10 cap -- ted

kennedy and his family within the first few weeks of the administration down to the white house theater to us the new film 13 days about the cuban missile crisis. here is ted kennedy with president george w. bush watching a film about ted kennedy's brother a few yards room, in theabinet first library, they had a handwritten thank you note from ted kennedy to president bush thanking him for bringing him and his family down to the white house to see 13 days. he said, i hope i will have many opportunities to come down to the rose garden and watch you signed some policies we can agree on. he said including education and health care. that outreach and bringing together of two people across the aisle, which ted kennedy had

done on many occasions and governor bush had done in texas, from that grew the no child left behind policy. there are issues about whether that is the best policy for education but the point is one of reaching out to the other side and the other side excepting the outreach and carrying on from there. bush, after the tax cuts, the top priority and top temporal and principal priority was no child left behind act, for which president bush's partners, democrat george miller in the house, and democrat ted kennedy in the senate, many people will call that when 9/11 the hill bush was on -- laura bush was on the hill with ted kennedy preparing to do a hearing on the no child left behind act. eventually, the act got adopted

and ted kennedy was there in the rose garden but the country went off in a different direction. >> that is right. in addition, the ted kennedy handwritten note to push, also a painting. ted kennedy was an amateur artist who painted that fidel's and he gave a painting to first lady laura bush, with a nice inscription. it shows that we can work across the aisle. that takes us of course to the that crises to mystic and foreign, military crises, can intervene and disrupt the best laid plans of an incoming president. since you mentioned 9/11, let's start and talk about the impact 9/11 had on president bush's first year in office. >> it cannot be overstated what a in the agenda of the bush of government,

the federal government, and of the whole country, it was the product of the 9/11 attack. the whole focus of the administration changed overnight. president bush was among the first to recognize how profound and complete the change would be , basically his war cabinet on the evening of september 11, and he started giving different instructions including to the f director, saying your mission just changed and your mission has traditionally been to catch the bad guys after they do the deed. it needs to change. it is now, we have to catch they do bad deeds. the story was written across at least half of the government and change the focus, the tenor, of the entire government in ways

that were completely unexpected in the campaign. thoughts about president clinton and things like the waco disaster? elaine: yes. did not have anything nearly like president obama or president bush. there was no financial crisis or a major attack on the united states. he had a much more normal, shall we say, first year. everything from gays in the evidence of myo, opening remarks, which is that he was not familiar with the government he was running. an outsider. a governor. there were pieces of it he knew well. could go thomas out for bid you made a mistake leaving him about

medicare because he knew everything. no president comes in knowing the whole shebang. there were clearly mistakes he made in the first year that really did hurt him and decrease his political popularity. a lot of it came from him and not being attuned to what the federal government was doing. aftere in in 1992, 1993, three republican terms. that means she does reagan terms and one bush one term. democratsime you had in a major role in the federal government, it was really a long time ago with jimmy carter. some of them were dead. a lot of them were retired. longer you have been out,

the more difficult the transition is because you cannot the last democratic secretary of defense or secretary of something or other and say, help us. showed in president clinton's first year. barbara: talk about the ongoing crisis as you came in as you are trying to move forward on health and other aspects of the policy agenda with president obama? chris: it is an interesting dynamic. when a president has a governing majority, they think it will last forever. in 2009, the recovery act, we were able to get health care passed. we were ready to go and we lost the majority of house and senate.

for the last six years, we have relied on regulations to get our agenda done. we used to joke in the white house legislation affairs, when the staffers would leave, a nice piece of paper that showed all of the bills that got passed during that time, it is shorter. policy butchange in tactics that came about because of the 2010 election. -- ifa: if you marquis -- a fewminutes for more minutes for one more question for me. i want to present the question what didree of you, you learn in the transition and the first year of your respective administration that you wish you had known, looking back, now you know it, you wish you had known going into it? i don't know, there are

a lot of things. i think the thing we wished we had known was exactly how complicated pieces of the government were, that, from the outside you thought you knew, then once you got in, there were layers upon layers upon layers. bill clinton had been governor of arkansas for more than a decade. al gore had been member of congress and member of senate for a long time. these guys had real experience. was so much learning that went on in the first year. probably making more time to do that would have been better later on. more time to learn. >> i was surprised over the last eight years have festivus goes.

it disappears so quickly. the other thing is the political pendulum always goes back in the other direction. the we tried to push in second term, we had a super majority and we could have gotten it done in the first two years. we decided to sequence other things. prioritization. it peaked at that time. josh: chris said what i was going to say. to have a keener sense of the clock. we came in with conventional wisdom understanding the most productive time is early on. what i did not understand well enough going in is how small the windows of opportunity for production -- productive action are. crucial questions to be concerned about, if you know what your priorities are, if you know where your policies are, is to be aware you will be knocked

off alan spine intervening crisis, and number two is, get the sequence right and take stuff you think is important and run with it as fast as you can as soon as the window opens. the windows are not only in the but they are widest in the first year. watch for the windows. pick the right issue, which we did not consistently do later in the administration, and run as fast as you can. the windows do not stay open long. from p: words to live request turn to those of you in the audience if you will wake -- wait for a microphone to come to you. >> my name is richard skinner.

we have heard a lot of talk about the importance of filling white house staff early on. everyone pays a lot of that a lot of attention to the cabinet. new administrations run into a particular challenge with subcabinet positions. these are often the people who can sink their teeth into the detail. i wonder what the people on the panel have learned about filling those cabinet positions, which stay vacant for a long time. >> i will give you my example it we had 70,000 employees. safety.ce workplace your administrators are critically important forcing the loss. the agencies and keeps the trains running on time and makes sure you are doing the internal changes, watching your

budget, it is all-important. i will echo the point on the white house staff. i have a lot of thoughts about the trend transition. classic making a mistake of focusing on the cabinet set of those immediately around the resident helping to get the agenda done. it will be interesting to see how that sequence changes. they do have time. >> thank you very much. this scares me a little bit. year dofirst irreparable damage to our republic? do we have enough checks and balances and sanity to keep us on an even keel somehow? elaine: on election night, my

son-in-law, an army captain, said to me we have to trust the constitution. i have been quoting that all the time. the constitution does build in checks and balances. a lot of people are nervous about where a president might go in his first year. to answer that specifically, it goes to the discussion we have been having. jeff pointed this out. most candidates for president come into office with policy papers. they come in a couple of key areas physically thought out policy agenda. president bush, the governor came in with a vision. go. knew where to if you come in having campaigned on it and given a lot of speeches on it, etc., you could

pretty much do a pretty good job in the first year. generally what tends to happen. the focus is on something the president cares about and thought about. the problem we are facing and what is making everybody nervous about the administration, is we have an absence of these. we do not quite know what he means. we do not know, how much money ,o you want to spend on that but part of the government will ?ou task there are a lot of things you have to figure out and there does not seem to be the depth in the chum transition or administration.

that was never the case. iny few presidents come knowing everything, but they generally come in with some expertise in some piece of the this is uncharted territory. definitive -- pessimistic, as you might imagine. we spent years in washington with everybody but loading the gridlock is terrible, washington never gets anything done, and now people are saying, washington might get something done. and i am a believer in our constitutional system. it is a difficult system. it is a system well designed to