Washington
CNN
–
The Biden administration managed to make a long list of major legislative victories for its first two years, despite the fact that I encountered one of the most close -cut congresses in history.
From a bicaparty action on infrastructureIN Weapon safety And Same -sex marriages to party accounts with bills Climate change and expansion of medical careThis is a record president Joe Biden, and the Democrats in the balloon were sought to disclose the campaign during the intervals.
But far from the spotlight is a woman who helped to do all this: Louise Terrell.
Being the director of the White House Legislative Assembly, Terrell, 53 years old, heads a team that is a presidential collective eyes and ears in Congress.
“Having made sure that we are answering, making sure that we are proceeding, figuring out what was happening here in this building,” said Terrell CNN, explaining her work, standing in front of the Capitol, where she spends a significant amount of time, even if she works in the White House.
She describes her role as a conductor to move Biden through Congress.
“You want to talk with committees, meetings. Who speaks with leadership? Who are newcomers? What is a floor action? What happens quickly? What slows down? And you need all this kind of tentacle, and then return it every day. ”
But unlike the real conductor, which is the front and the center of the orchestra, Terrell is very working behind the scenes.
In fact, when we sat on our conversation in the Executive Building of the White House, she said that this was her first television interview – when it was lib.
Terrell's many years in Washington was crucial for her success. At first she began on a hill more than 20 years ago as an employee of the then SEN. Biden in the Judicial Committee. Looking back, she at that time describes herself as “Garu from Delaware”, in the fear of experienced legal clerks and experienced employees surrounding her. She quickly found her support and flourished, which became the deputy chief of staff of Bayden, and then worked in the Office of the Obama administration – the team itself, which she is now led.
However, even with her extensive resume, Terrell readily admits that today's Washington is more difficult to navigate than the one that she first arrived two decades ago.
“Extremeity has become extreme, and I think it complicates,” she said. “You must really work much more zealous to find where you can meet in the middle.”
The opportunity to call on the personal relations that she forged over the years on the Capitol Hill turned out to be critical to work through the passage to find this middle land, especially given the subtle majority of the democrats.
“I will be very clear in what the president’s position is and why we want to see what we want to see,” she said about her conversations with republican legislators. “Republicans know that when this White House – and whether we are in our team or a high -ranking official – gives a word, then we support our word. And I think that such trust on the hill was very important for moving. ”
Deep relations also matter, she said.
“You get fuel from other people you work with. And I get an incredible amount of fuel from the older team here in the White House, and only people who have many years of experience and relationships in these matters. ”
This is a job that can do either the president, and although it is not a large extent disfunction, this does not mean that it remains unnoticed. After her confirmation in the Supreme Court as the first Black Judge, Ketanji Brown Jackson included Terrell in her cries as one of the “brilliant people” who helped to make a historical achievement possible.
Terrell's longest relationship in the White House with the president himself. Although their professional relations began when she came to Washington two decades ago, she first met Biden when she was only 5 years old.
“I met Ba Biden in kindergarten,” Terrell recalls, who remembers with a smile from Wilmington. “This (it was) a very fast bicycle trip from my house to the place where Bo grew. So we were friends of childhood (and remained friends for … our whole adult life. ”
She remembers how she visited Biden’s household in childhood, sharing a joke from childhood with CNN.
“When we went to Bo's house, there was a fax in the living room, and all that you had to know (it was), do not howl a fax,” she says with a laugh. “And again, this is Delaware, and probably this was the first fax in Delaware, this is high -tech equipment.”
Terrell's life relations with Biden's family mean that she brings the unique prospect of her work in the White House.
“He knows my people and is simply connected with this,” she said. “You know where the person came from, and I think it helps.”
“It brings warmth to work, and I was very, very, very lucky about it,” she added.
Terrell said her friend Bo, who Died from the brain tumor in 2015Always in her mind.
“You want to imagine that … The president wants you to do,” she said. “And then there is always another question, what would Bo carry? And I think about these things as intertwined, and they are part of the background driver of how we do work. ”
Two years after her work on the Judicial Committee, Terrell became pregnant. She says that Biden’s office has retained the first family culture. But when she continued her career in Washington, her children became a little older, and the balance became more complicated.
“I had work in the Obama administration when my children said, for example, about 6 and 8 – or 4 and 6. It was all a little blurry,” she joked.
She describes her time after work as “bed, bath and beyond”, the whole “second shift” after a whole day in the office. This is that she is now aware of how the eldest woman is in the administration.
“I look through the White House, women whose children are age, and you really need to (remember) how long their days and their nights are,” said Terrell. “And then think about what performance and type of 100% they give in the office every day. I have so much gratitude and admiration. ”
Women employed at the table are not just a phrase in Terrell's office. When CNN stopped at one of her team meetings in the western wing, the room was filled with young employees – mostly women. Terrell says that this was a conscious decision not from their gender, but because they were the best for work.
“(This) expectation, be prepared to contribute. And this is something like what I mean – be prepared and ready for the game, ”she said about the younger personnel. “Do not be afraid to do it.”
But when she was asked what advice she would give to young women who began today in the government, Terrell did not hesitate.
“I think women laugh today than me,” she said. “It is really impressive. Therefore, I think that they do not need my advice, in fact, so, yes, I do not need me. I am just glad that they drank drinks and coffee with them when they take me, ”she said with a laugh.
Terrell and her team are in negotiations for the last weeks of most democratic chambers, which means competing priorities for the rest of the lame duck is more important of which is the main function of the congress in financing the government.
Since some democrats tried to squeeze the legislation to regulate social networks companies, Terrell on Facebook raised some issues among some advocacy groups, although Terrell supports his work in a technical giant 10 years ago, does not contradict the legislative agenda of the president.
“I think that the president seemed to take office and held a campaign on this subject about a very pro-component, reading and transparency on the platforms of social networks, which is obvious what they are today is not what they were 10 years ago. Therefore, we worked very hard, I think to promote these executive actions that regulate actions, people that we led to administration for actions, in the “next”.
And although the democratic majority in the Senate will expand a little in January, Terrell's office is located in the front line, preparing for the Republicans to capture the house and start A wave of investigation of Congress in Biden officialsField
“Obviously, there will be a majority“ this is supervision ” – you heard it -“ we are looking ”, and this just expected,” says Terrell. “I think what the prospect of the president and the team is here, you cannot allow such a swamp a boat.”
“I think the president said that he was ready to work with everyone who wants to work with him, hopes that the Republicans will do this, and that they will do the work of the people and will not go to generally accepted rabbit holes over supervision.”
She insists on the relationship of her team not only with the Democrats, but also with the Republicans throughout the passage will pay off.
“The relations that you have with the Republicans have been working on them all the time,” she said. “There are people in our store, and again, people here in the White House, who have some of this relationship. And therefore it will not be similar to the fact that we are with a parachute. It will simply be like the second chapter. ”
