White House Office of the Staff Secretary

The Staff Secretary ("Staff Sec") is a position in the White House Office responsible for managing paper flow to the President and circulating documents among senior staff for comment. It has been referred to as "the nerve center of the White House." Specifically, the Office of the Staff Secretary decides which decision memos, briefing materials, lists of potential nominees, briefing books, intelligence reports, schedules, correspondence, and speech drafts end up on the president’s desk, as well as how and when the president will receive them. The Staff Secretary also works with senior White House staff to edit all of these materials and ensure they are ready for the president's consumption.

White House Office of the Staff Secretary
Agency overview
Formed1953 (1953)
HeadquartersWest Wing, White House
Washington, D.C., U.S.
38.8975°N 77.0376°W / 38.8975; -77.0376
Agency executive
  • Stefanie Feldman, Staff Secretary
Parent departmentWhite House Office
President Barack Obama surprises members of the Office of the Staff Secretary in the West Wing of the White House during an impromptu drop-by visit on May 21, 2009

The Office of the Staff Secretary is generally composed of a Staff Secretary, a Deputy Staff Secretary, and several Associate Staff Secretaries. The Office of the Staff Secretary, along with its sub-offices—the Office of the Executive Clerk, the Office of Records Management, and the Office of Presidential Correspondence—is the largest of the White House Offices.[1]

The current Staff Secretary is Stefanie Feldman.[2]

Function

Due to the high volume of important memos, meetings and decisions generated for the President's attention, the Staff Secretary is tasked with deciding which papers should go to the President's desk—and when the paper should be sent to him. These documents range from presidential decision memos and bills passed by Congress to drafts of speeches and samples of correspondence.[3] The Staff Secretary relies on close coordination with Oval Office Operations and the Scheduling Office to decide when and how the President would like to receive documents.

The Staff Secretary's principal role is to review the incoming papers and determine which issues must reach the President. Secondary to this, Staff Sec determines who else in the administration should comment on the issue to give the President a full picture of the situation. Staff Sec then compiles the documents with the relevant commentary for the President's consumption.[3]

Traditionally, the Staff Secretary is a position of great trust due to the influence it can wield over which information is allowed to reach the President, and who is given the opportunity to comment on those issues.

The Staff Secretary or a designated Assistant Staff Secretary always accompanies the President on any work-related travel.

History

The position was established under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953, one of the recommendations of the Hoover Commission (Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch). Under Eisenhower, the first staff secretaries focused particularly on screening national security communications; in this role, Colonel Andrew J. Goodpaster was thought to overshadow the President's special assistant for national security.[4]

With the appointment of businessman Jon Huntsman, Sr., as Staff Secretary in the Richard Nixon White House, the role was vastly expanded to absorb the functions of the Office of Management and Administration. These new roles included personnel management, finance and operations, services (such as access to the White House Mess and limousine fleet), facilities and furniture, and oversight of the Executive Clerk and Visitors Office.[5]

Almost all of these responsibilities—as well as Presidential Correspondence—were spun off during the Carter Administration into the newly created Office of Administration.

During the Reagan Administration the Offices of the Staff Secretary and the Executive Clerk were reunited with Presidential Correspondence in a configuration that has remained fairly consistent through the subsequent presidencies.[3]

President Trump's second White House Chief of Staff, John F. Kelly, reiterated the importance of the role of the Staff Secretary in managing the flow of information around the White House.[6] His decision to allow a Staff Secretary with only an interim security clearance has been criticized.

List of Staff Secretaries

Image Name Start End President
Pete Carroll January 20, 1953 September 17, 1954 Dwight D. Eisenhower
Andrew Goodpaster October 1954 January 20, 1961
Bill Hartigan January 20, 1961 August 4, 1961 John F. Kennedy
Ken Cole January 20, 1969 November 1969 Richard Nixon
John Brown November 1969 February 22, 1971
Jon Huntsman February 22, 1971 January 1, 1972
Bruce Kehrli January 1, 1972 May 1974
Jerry Jones May 1974 May 1975
Gerald Ford
Jim Connor June 1975 January 20, 1977
Richard Hutcheson January 20, 1977 January 20, 1981 Jimmy Carter
David Gergen January 20, 1981 June 17, 1981 Ronald Reagan
Dick Darman June 17, 1981 February 1, 1985
David Chew February 1, 1985 April 1987
Rhett Dawson April 1987 Fall 1988
Jim Cicconi January 20, 1989 December 1990 George H. W. Bush
Phillip Brady January 14, 1991 January 20, 1993
John Podesta January 20, 1993 June 30, 1995 Bill Clinton
Todd Stern June 30, 1995 March 11, 1998
Phillip Caplan March 11, 1998 Spring 1999
Sean Patrick Maloney September 14, 1999 January 20, 2000
Lisel Loy 2000 January 20, 2001
Harriet Miers January 20, 2001 June 6, 2003 George W. Bush
Brett Kavanaugh June 6, 2003 May 30, 2006
Raul Yanes June 3, 2006 January 20, 2009
Lisa Brown January 20, 2009 January 30, 2011 Barack Obama
Raj De January 30, 2011 April 2012
Douglas Kramer April 2012 February 2013
Joani Walsh 2014 January 20, 2017
Rob Porter January 20, 2017 February 7, 2018 Donald Trump
Derek Lyons February 7, 2018
Acting: February 7, 2018 – June 6, 2018
December 18, 2020
Jessica Hertz January 20, 2021 October 22, 2021 Joe Biden
Neera Tanden October 25, 2021 May 26, 2023
Stefanie Feldman May 26, 2023 present

References

  1. "White House Staff Disclosure 2014". whitehouse.gov. Archived from the original on January 20, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2014 via National Archives. Alt URL
  2. Baker, Peter; Shear, Michael D.; Rogers, Katie; Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (June 4, 2023). "Inside the Complicated Reality of Being America's Oldest President". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  3. "Office of the Staff Secretary" (PDF). WhiteHouseTransitionProject.org. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  4. Description of creation of staff secretary position
  5. "Staff Secretary". NixonLibrary.gov. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  6. Maggie Haberman (August 24, 2017). "John Kelly's Latest Mission: Controlling the Information Flow to Trump". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
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