{"id":1477,"date":"2024-03-16T22:33:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T22:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/16\/meet-the-woman-steering-bidens-bipartisan-winning-streak-on-capitol-hill-cnn-politics\/"},"modified":"2024-03-16T22:33:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T22:33:50","slug":"meet-the-woman-steering-bidens-bipartisan-winning-streak-on-capitol-hill-cnn-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/16\/meet-the-woman-steering-bidens-bipartisan-winning-streak-on-capitol-hill-cnn-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the woman steering Biden\u2019s bipartisan winning streak on Capitol Hill | CNN Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Meet<\/div>


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\n Washington<\/span>
\n CNN<\/span>
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0
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\n The Biden administration managed to rack up a long list of major legislative wins in its first two years despite facing one of the most closely-divided Congresses in history.
From bipartisan action on infrastructure<\/a>, gun safety<\/a> and same-sex marriage<\/a> to party-line bills tackling climate change and expanding health care coverage<\/a>, it\u2019s a record President Joe Biden and Democrats on the ballot were all eager to tout on the campaign trail during the midterms.\n <\/p>\n

\n But far from the spotlight is a woman who helped make all that happen: Louisa Terrell.\n <\/p>\n

\n As the director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, Terrell, 53, leads a team that is the president\u2019s collective eyes and ears in Congress.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMaking sure we\u2019re responding, making sure we\u2019re being proactive, figuring out what\u2019s happening here in this building,\u201d Terrell told CNN, explaining her job while standing in front of the Capitol, where she spends a considerable amount of time even though she works for the White House.\n <\/p>\n

\n She describes her role as a conductor for moving Biden\u2019s agenda through Congress.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou want to be talking to committees, caucuses. Who\u2019s talking to leadership? Who are the up-and-comers? What\u2019s the floor action? What\u2019s running quickly? What\u2019s slowing down? And you need all these sort of tentacles out there, and then bringing that back every day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But unlike an actual conductor who is front and center of an orchestra, Terrell operates very much behind the scenes.\n <\/p>\n

\n In fact, when we sat down for our conversation in the White House Executive Office Building, she said it was her first television interview \u2013 ever.\n <\/p>\n

\n Terrell\u2019s years of experience in Washington have been critical to her success. She first started on the Hill over 20 years ago as a staffer for then-Sen. Biden on the Judiciary Committee. Looking back, she describes herself at the time as being just a \u201cgal from Delaware,\u201d in awe of the experienced legal clerks and seasoned staffers surrounding her. She quickly found her footing and thrived, going on to serve as Biden\u2019s deputy chief of staff and later worked in the Obama administration\u2019s Office of Legal Affairs \u2013 the very team she now leads.\n <\/p>\n

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\n <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Even with her expansive resume, however, Terrell readily admits that today\u2019s Washington is tougher to navigate than the one she first arrived in two decades ago.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe extremes have gotten extreme and I think that makes it harder,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to really work a lot harder to find where you can meet in the middle.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Being able to call on the personal relationships she\u2019s forged over the years on Capitol Hill proved critical to working across the aisle to find that middle ground, particularly given Democrats\u2019 razor-thin majorities.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ll be very clear on what the president\u2019s position is and why we want to see what we want to see done,\u201d she said of her conversations with Republican lawmakers. \u201cRepublicans know that when this White House \u2013 and whether it\u2019s us on our team or a senior official \u2013 gives the word, then we stand by our word. And I think that kind of credibility on the Hill has been very important to move things.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Deep relationships matter too, she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou get fuel from the other people you work with. And I get an incredible amount of fuel from the senior team here at the White House and just people who have years and years of experience and relationships in those matters.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s the kind of work that can make or break a president, and even though it\u2019s largely unheralded, that doesn\u2019t mean it goes unnoticed. Following her confirmation to the Supreme Court as its first Black justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson included Terrell in her shout-outs as one of the \u201cbrilliant folks\u201d who helped make the historic achievement possible.\n <\/p>\n

\n Terrell\u2019s longest relationship in the White House is with the president himself. Though their professional relationship started when she came to Washington two decades ago, she first met Biden when she was just 5 years old.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI met Beau Biden in kindergarten,\u201d Terrell, who is from Wilmington, recalled with a smile. \u201cIt (was) a very quick bike ride from my house to where Beau grew up. So we were childhood friends (and) stayed friends for \u2026 all our adulthood.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She remembers visiting the Biden household as a kid, sharing with CNN a running joke from her childhood.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen we would go to Beau\u2019s house, there was a fax machine in the living room and all you needed to know (was), do not screw up the fax machine,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cAnd again, this is Delaware and it was probably the first fax machine in Delaware, this is high tech equipment.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n \"Louisa<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Terrell\u2019s lifelong relationship with the Biden family means she brings a unique perspective to her work in the White House.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe knows my folks and just being connected that way,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know where the person came from and I think that helps.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt brings a warmth to the work and I feel very, very lucky about that,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Terrell said her friend Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015<\/a>, is always on her mind.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou want to represent what \u2026 the President wants you to do,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s always this other question of, what would Beau do? And I think of those things as kind of intertwined and they\u2019re part of the background driver of how we do the work.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Two years into her work on the Judiciary Committee, Terrell became pregnant. She says Biden\u2019s office maintained a family-first culture. But as she continued her career in Washington, her kids got a bit older, and the balancing act became more complicated.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI had the job in the Obama administration when my kids were say, like, around 6 and 8 \u2013 or 4 and 6. It\u2019s all a little bit of a blur,\u201d she joked.\n <\/p>\n

\n She describes her time after work as \u201cbed, bath and beyond,\u201d an entire \u201csecond shift\u201d after a full day at the office. It\u2019s something she\u2019s extra mindful of now, as a senior woman in the administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI look across the White House, the women whose kids are that age, and you really have to (remember) how long their days and their nights are,\u201d Terrell said. \u201cAnd then to think about the kind of performance and the kind of 100% they\u2019re giving at the office every day. I have so much gratitude and admiration.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Women having a seat at the table is not just a phrase in Terrell\u2019s office. When CNN stopped by one of her team meetings in the West Wing, the room was packed with young staffers \u2013 mostly women. Terrell says that was a conscious decision, not because of their gender, but because they were the best for the job.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201c(The) expectation is, be ready to contribute. And that\u2019s kind of what I mean \u2013 be prepared and ready to play,\u201d she said of the more junior staff. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to do that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But when asked what advice she would give to young women starting out in government today, Terrell didn\u2019t hesitate.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think that women today are way braver than I was,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really impressive. So, I kind of think they don\u2019t need my advice, actually, so, yeah, they don\u2019t need me. I\u2019m just happy to have drinks and coffee with them when they\u2019ll take me,\u201d she said with a laugh.\n <\/p>\n

\n Terrell and her team are knee-deep in negotiations for the final weeks of a Democratic House majority, which means competing priorities for the rest of the lame duck session \u2013 the most important of which is Congress\u2019 basic function of funding the government.\n <\/p>\n

\n As some Democrats tried to squeeze in legislation to regulate social media companies, Terrell\u2019s stint at Facebook raised some questions among some advocacy groups, though Terrell maintains her stint at the tech giant 10 years ago doesn\u2019t conflict with the president\u2019s legislative agenda.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think the president kind of came into office and campaigned on this about a very pro-competition, pro-accountability and pro-transparency in social media platforms, which obviously, what they are today is not what they were 10 years ago. So we worked really hard, I think, to promote those executive actions, the regulatory actions, the people that we brought into the administration to work on those, and worked hard on legislative pieces, and hope to continue to do that next year.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And though the Democratic majority in the Senate will slightly expand in January, Terrell\u2019s office is on the front lines preparing for Republicans to take over the House and launch a wave of congressional investigations into Biden officials<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s obviously going to be a big piece of, \u2018This is oversight\u2019 \u2013 you\u2019ve heard this \u2013 \u2018We are watching,\u2019 and that\u2019s just to be expected,\u201d Terrell says. \u201cI think what the perspective of the president and the team here is, you can\u2019t let that kind of swamp the boat.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think the president said that he\u2019s ready to work with anyone who wants to work with him, hopes that Republicans will do this, and that they will get the people\u2019s work done and not go down the proverbial rabbit holes of oversight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She insists her team\u2019s relationships with not just Democrats but with Republicans across the aisle will pay off.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe kind of relationships you have with Republicans, we\u2019ve been working on them the whole time,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are folks in our shop, and again, folks here in the White House, who have some of those relationships. And so, it won\u2019t feel like we\u2019re parachuting in. It\u2019ll just feel like a Chapter Two.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The Biden administration managed to rack up a long list of major legislative wins in its first two years despite facing one of the most closely-divided Congresses in history.From bipartisan action on infrastructure, gun safety and same-sex marriage to party-line bills tackling climate change and expanding health care coverage, it\u2019s a record […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/221210194303-03-louisa-terrell.jpg?q=w_1110,c_fill","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2068,2488,2490,233,2491,2485,369,2487,2489,1048,2486],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1479,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions\/1479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}