Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max Inside the White House, NEERA TANDEN has taken a far more assertive role in determining what papers make it to the president’s desk than her predecessor as staff secretary, according to several people familiar with the dynamic. That internal shift in the West Wing’s paper flow has earned her both fans and detractors. Tanden’s advocates say that she has necessarily tightened up the process and sharpened the material that makes it to the Oval Office. That sometimes requires sending back memos and rejecting certain materials. A popular staff secretary – the person who handles the material the president sees — is not necessarily a good staff secretary, they argue. Other current and former administration officials, however, see Tanden as a roadblock who is further slowing down an already lengthy decision-making process. “Oftentimes, we need to get a memo to the president very quickly — whether it’s from [chief of staff] Ron [Klain's] direction or [deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed’s] direction, and then it will sit there for 12 hours and sometimes it will miss the [president’s] book that day,” said one former administration official. The same person said they felt Tanden too often inserted her own policy and political opinions into a role that's meant to function as an honest broker who determines what’s worthy of the president’s attention — and what needs more polish first. Others across the administration have been surprised she continues to be a frequent tweeter after her past posts led her to withdraw her nomination to head the Office of Management and Budget. Some also note that there has been a good deal of turnover in the staff secretary’s office since Tanden’s arrival as many of the officials at the beginning of the administration have gone to other jobs within the executive branch. Tanden has annoyed people inside the West Wing mostly because of her success in asserting more control over the paper flow, according to two people familiar with the dynamic. Part of this is due to a perception inside the building that Tanden is on the same page as Klain, so appealing her decisions to a higher power is not usually fruitful, they said. “Ron must really love her because otherwise I can’t figure it out,” said one baffled administration official. Tanden’s internal stature is also reflected in both her salary and title. She makes the maximum White House staff salary, $180,000, compared to $155,000 made by Biden’s former staff secretary, JESSICA HERTZ. When Tanden negotiated her role in the fall of 2021, she also secured keeping her title as “senior adviser,” according to one person familiar with the arrangement. But those dual titles have contributed to the friction as Tanden has inserted herself into debates common for senior advisers but not typical for staff secretaries. Indeed, none of the staff secretaries in the Obama or Trump administrations held a “senior adviser” title, according to the White House’s annual staff disclosure forms from those years. (The 2011 disclosure is difficult to access online but RAJ DE, the staff secretary at the time, confirmed his title didn't include "senior adviser.") In a statement, press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE called Tanden “a friend” and told West Wing Playbook that she “is doing the job that she was asked to do by the President and doing it well, ensuring that he has the information he needs every day. I have seen firsthand the trust and faith the President has in her as a member of his senior team.” Through a White House spokesperson, Tanden declined an interview. JOHN PODESTA, a former staff secretary for BILL CLINTON who is also close to Tanden, told West Wing Playbook he talked with her about the job when she took it but didn’t know about the current internal dynamic. As for the job itself, he said it’s set up in a way that naturally invites detractors. “Your duty to the president is to sharpen up decisions and there are people who chafe at that,” he said. “Sounds to me, from what you’re saying that people are unhappy about, it’s kind of exactly what the staff secretary should be doing. You know, I had a lot of friends, and I made some enemies in the White House when I had that job.” MESSAGE US — Are you confidential assistant SOPHIE MAHER? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous if you’d like. Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .
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