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 Even in a divided country, it’s not all that surprising there is broad, bipartisan support for a new push to get rid of those extra charges and fees Americans pay for hotel stays, concert tickets and switching cell phone providers. Perhaps the only surprising thing is how quickly something JOE BIDEN never mentioned during his 2020 campaign went — in less than a year’s time — from an idea tossed out by economic aides to a major point of emphasis in the president’s State of the Union address. The push around junk fees officially began late last summer, when BRIAN DEESE, Biden’s national economic adviser, asked other aides to work on a household finance agenda – something for Biden to focus on in the run-up to the midterms as inflation remained high. But the real origin point took place months earlier, according to five administration officials who provided new details of what is fast becoming one of the president’s most popular policy initiatives. As the White House Competition Council was batting around ideas for the panel to focus on, TIM WU, a former special assistant to the president for competition and tech policy who left the administration at the end of last year, suggested the idea of “junk fees.” ROHIT CHOPRA, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had coined the term back in January. The suggestion was not universally embraced, as some on the competition council wondered if the initiative was better suited for the CFPB, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Still, the idea gained steam later that summer within the national economic council. Under Deese’s deputy, BHARAT RAMAMURTI, Wu, MICHAEL NEGRON, NEALE MAHONEY, JOELLE GAMBLE, HANNAH GARDEN-MONHEIT and several other Biden advisers worked to develop a research-based policy. “Clamping down on these abuses can save consumers real money and provide them with more breathing room,” said Mahoney, a Stanford economist who joined the administration in July 2022. “And so all of those factors meant that this agenda is not just good politics, but it's really good economics and can make a real difference.” They were convinced by the research, which detailed industries’ over-reliance on these fees — pre-pandemic, two-thirds of banks’ revenues came from overdraft fees — and the disproportionate impact on people living paycheck to paycheck. Some of Biden’s closest aides, including senior adviser ANITA DUNN, also saw “junk fees” as a political winner and helped to elevate the initiative. But some aides were at odds over how the president should present it to the public, specifically whether Biden should use the term “junk fees” at all, according to two people familiar with events. On the weekend prior to a late September competition council meeting, where the president was slated to talk about the push for the first time, speechwriters cut the term from his prepared remarks over concerns it didn’t sound presidential. Miffed as they looked over revised drafts, other aides closely involved with this effort lobbied to get the language restored. In the end, Biden’s top aides agreed to put it back in. When Biden spoke during the Sept. 26 meeting, he vowed to get costs under control and tasked the group with focusing on “something that’s weighing down family budgets… unnecessary hidden fees, known in the parlance as ‘junk fees.’” From there, things moved quickly. Deese tasked Mahoney and Wu with authoring a White House blog post that went up a month later, outlining the administration’s view of what is and isn’t a junk fee and the economic data showing why regulation in this area was justified. “We wanted to have a really buttoned down and very clear articulation of the rationale here so the private sector can understand, and so the public can understand because it was important that people can easily see why this is good policy,” said Negron, a special assistant to the president for economic policy. Deese, whose final day as NEC director was Tuesday, was enthusiastic about the initiative and expedited the effort to translate ideas – and personal experiences – into policy. At one gathering, an NEC staffer memorably recounted their own frustration over an exorbitant “resort fee” after a one-night hotel stay, as the universality of such an experience gave the project additional urgency. When Biden delivered his State of the Union, he used the term “junk fees” four times and called on Congress to act. “We’re tired of being played for suckers,” Biden declared. “Pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act so companies stop ripping us off.” Google searches for “junk fees” spiked to an all time high the night of the speech. In the days that followed, polls showed majorities of 79 and 75 percent backing the junk fees push. And Republicans hurried to introduce legislation around some of the very ideas Biden laid out: Rep. ANN WAGNER (R-Mo.) introduced the Fly Together Act banning airlines from charging parents to sit with their kids, and Rep. PAUL GOSAR (R-Ariz.) introduced the Resort Fee Transparency Act requiring hotels to advertise resort fees upfront. It’s about as fast as anyone around the White House can recall a new policy push taking shape – and generating such widespread public approval. “A rare instance,” one person involved said, of “serious policy goals and the politics lining up.” MESSAGE US — Are you DANIEL CLUCHEY, senior presidential speechwriter? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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