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 Eli | Email Lauren When former Atlanta Mayor KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS joined the Biden administration last June, her role overseeing the Office of Public Engagement was always going to be temporary. Just how temporary remains to be seen. Bottoms, who serves as a “special government employee,” initially told President JOE BIDEN she’d stay through the midterm election. “My first final day was going to be Nov. 4,” she said in an interview with West Wing Playbook. But amid the euphoria following Democrats’ strong midterm showing, she pushed her exit date into late December. She remains in her role today, privately contemplating another end date but noncommittal about sticking to it. “It’s been a sacrifice from the beginning because my family is still in Atlanta and flying back and forth every week just can be physically exhausting,” she said. “But the great part is that when I get here, I know that I’m here with a group of people who are doing what they do for the right reasons.” Bottoms’s case is emblematic of a White House that has seen less burnout in many senior, high-stress jobs — an administration that reflects Biden’s own sense of loyalty and reliance on a tight-knit circle. While some senior staff have left, others expected by colleagues to have been gone by now have stuck around. Prior to the election, several aides believed National Economic Council Director BRIAN DEESE, who has two young kids, would leave before year’s end, but he has not. Chief of staff RON KLAIN, who long ago became the longest serving first chief to a Democratic president, has also given some White House officials the impression he’s not planning to give up his job — or his beloved @WHCOS Twitter handle — any time soon, although others say his plans remain unknown. The lack of departures has even left JEFF ZIENTS, tasked by Klain last fall to help prepare for any major staff transitions, without a “whole lot to do,” according to a person familiar with his work. And with Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN agreeing to remain in her post, not a single member of the president’s traditional Cabinet has departed, earning him praise from government watchdog groups. (Former science adviser ERIC LANDER, who had Cabinet-level status, resigned after a POLITICO report revealed his bullying of subordinates, but those groups typically don’t include that newly created position as part of their Cabinet analysis.) Even Health and Human Services Secretary XAVIER BECERRA, perhaps the most embattled member of Biden’s mostly cohesive Cabinet, has hung on despite tensions with the White House over the administration’s Covid-19 and monkeypox responses. The only other president since the 1980s to hold on to his entire Cabinet during his first two years in office was BARACK OBAMA. “Looking at President Biden’s complete lack of [Cabinet] turnover, it looks like a good government success story of cohesion and effectiveness among the leadership team,” said VALERIE SMITH BOYD, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. Although Biden’s Cabinet remains intact and high-level staffers seem to be sticking around, this White House has not been immune to departures. And more could be in the offing following the president’s State of the Union address next month. KATHRYN DUNN TENPAS, a nonresident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution who studies White House staff turnover, said that, so far, 40 percent of Biden’s “A-team” — a group of 66 influential staff positions Tenpas has identified as core advisers — has turned over. However, some are still part of the administration, including senior adviser ANITA DUNN, who left and then returned, and White House counsel STUART DELERY, who was initially deputy counsel before being promoted. Biden’s turnover rate at the two-year mark is far better than that of President DONALD TRUMP — who had a rate of 66 percent — and is also an improvement over RONALD REAGAN’s 57 percent. But he falls behind Presidents BILL CLINTON (38 percent), GEORGE W. BUSH (33 percent), GEORGE H.W. BUSH (25 percent) and Obama (24 percent). Most of the staff shake ups occurred during Biden’s second year, partly fueled by changes in Vice President KAMALA HARRIS’ office — including the departure of her chief of staff TINA FLOURNOY and National Security Adviser NANCY McELDOWNEY — as well as turnover in the White House counsel’s office. But overall, Tenpas said Biden represents a return to normalcy after the tumultuous Trump years. Now, when people leave their White House posting, they’re doing it for family reasons, or to go to academic jobs. Some, like Office of Management and Budget director SHALANDA YOUNG, even get promoted within the administration. “Biden’s succession plans are very organized,” said Tenpas. “There’s not a lot of drama.” MESSAGE US —Are you JEFF ZIENTS, who is being tasked to oversee WH staff transitions? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.
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