Edley, Chris

Edley, Chris This AI well doined NEC between be OR ESLL perfum PPC these Revised Draft January 18, 1995 Background Several major Administration Johs initiatives have sufficient high-level attention that questions of strategy and process already receive regular attention from principals. Examples include health care, crime, trade and government reinvention. There are other important areas, however, where day-to-day crisis management makes it all but impossible for our political agenda and policy development to be integrated in a strategic way so that: targeted policy development is finished when needed for political or legislative purposes; the "pieces" of a compelling Clinton-Gore legacy will be in place when needed; key constituencies feel appropriately consulted in the formulation of those targeted, priority initiatives. Several senior White House staff see this structural problem in our decisionmaking, but lack the resources to solve it. Three illustrations: (1) Over the next few months, Congress will face over a dozen issues of major concern to Labor, and the Administration will have to take a position -- whether or not it leads -- on most of them. These range from Davis-Bacon, to Rail Labor Protection, to privatization of Air Traffic Control, to Buy-American requirements. Beyond that, there are the issues of minimum wage, tax policy, the Federal workforce, and many others. No single policy organ has responsibility for all of these issues, and the lead subcabinet officials on most of them have little guidance on how New Democrats respond to traditional concerns of organized labor. We have responsible White House aides to attend the tactical and overarching questions of the Administration's political relationship with Labor, but it is difficult to fashion and execute an overall political strategy without the raw material of programmatic decisions, available when needed, after the best analysis available has been brought to bear. (2) We are not credited by the "urban constituency" with having delivered on an "urban policy," despite our several accomplishments. We now have a number of balls in the air, including FY 1996 supplemental EZs and the reinvention of HUD. Knitting these and other measures together, plus filling in remaining pieces, is a difficult task for communications, legislation, public outreach and policy development. As of yet, there is no definition of our political goals or our strategy for achieving them, and no one is specifically accountable for planning over the horizon to see that the gap is filled. (3) The Middle Class Bill of Rights has several pieces, and will doubtless evolve. Tracking the elements, and ensuring sustained focus, will be a mini-campaign in itself. 1