Administration turns to Cabinet for help reinvigorating agenda

The White House is moving to decentralize its policymaking process, handing new powers to Cabinet officials long perceived as taking a back seat to a tightly run -- some would say insular -- West Wing operation. The move, described by senior administration officials, is being driven by White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.

Now five months into the job, Bolten is acting to reinvigorate a White House that has faced significant challenges of late, including sagging poll ratings for President Bush, unrelenting criticism of the war in Iraq, and a stinging domestic policy setback last year when Congress rebuffed Bush's quest to revamp Social Security.

"I don't want to suggest that the president has not always relied very heavily on the expertise pulled together in this administration -- first and foremost the Cabinet," said one senior administration official. "That said, as part of the effort to re-energize and refresh," he indicated, White House officials are "redoubling" efforts to "reach out to the Cabinet."

The new approach to the Cabinet, begun quietly in the last few months, is a cornerstone of the administration's effort to develop its 2007 agenda, which will be presented early next year in Bush's State of the Union address and in his fiscal 2008 budget blueprint. The Cabinet has been summoned to craft longer-term policy goals as well.

With less than two-and-a-half years left in the administration, Bush aides realize there is scant time to try to cement the president's domestic policy legacy, and they are determined to crank up their idea-making machine to the fullest extent possible.

According to one administration source, Bolten sent out a memo to all Cabinet chiefs late in June noting the relatively brief time left in the Bush presidency and asking for ideas. "He called upon Cabinet members to identify their highest priorities -- both existing ones and new ones," the source said.

It appears responses to this request were expected sometime during the summer. The senior administration official made clear, though, that the stepped-up involvement of the Cabinet in crafting the 2008 agenda will continue through the fall.

While all agencies are being plumbed for ideas, national security officials already have constant access to the wartime president, so it is the Cabinet secretaries focused on domestic policy whose engagement with the White House will increase.

Domestic policy initiatives emanating from the agencies will reach the West Wing through two existing White House shops -- the Domestic Policy Council and National Economic Council -- while individual secretaries will get face time with the president.

Two former administration officials noted that the order for brainstorming became necessary because the White House is now especially hungry for fresh initiatives.

They noted that much of Bush's agenda so far has been dictated by policies developed during his 2000 presidential campaign or soon after he was elected.

Since then, for example, Congress has enacted versions of Bush proposals to measure education progress through testing, cut taxes, establish new energy policies and add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare.

Bush's failed initiative last year to allow workers to invest some of their Social Security taxes in personal accounts was also a staple of his 2000 platform.

"I think it's natural in a second term to make an additional effort to gather creative ideas and innovative policy solutions, because in the first term, you're very focused on completing an agenda that was set in a campaign -- as well as the first 100 days of a presidency," said one former White House official.

Bolten, another source noted, had extensive contact with Cabinet officials during his tenure at the helm of the Office of Management and Budget and is used to getting their input.

The new procedure might help douse criticism that Bush -- to some extent like President Clinton before him -- has kept much of his Cabinet in the dog house. But the ever-disciplined Bush White House is certainly not letting its agency chiefs off the leash.

Cabinet secretaries are being ordered to convey to the White House what they intend to accomplish between now and the end of administration and how they intend to do it. Bush intends to hold his Cabinet responsible for fulfilling the goals they set.

"This is something that Josh, with his background in the Office of Management and Budget, I think is very focused on . . . this is something the president's focused on -- with his MBA background -- making sure that we're very goal oriented, that we know how we're going to measure success, and that we continually measure it," the senior administration official said.

The new protocol comes amid other major domestic policy changes in the administration during the past few months.

This spring, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove relinquished control of day-to-day policy management to focus on long-term policy strategy and on politics. In addition, Bush convinced Henry M. Paulsen Jr. to serve as Treasury secretary and tapped Karl Zinsmeister to be his White House domestic policy adviser.

The outreach to the Cabinet also parallels concurrent White House efforts to solicit more ideas from experts outside of government and from Capitol Hill, administration officials assert. At least on the GOP side of the aisle, the effort to communicate more with Congress might be making headway.

"There seems to be a deliberate effort to make administration officials available to answer questions and provide information about policy initiatives, as well as to seek input on how legislative initiatives would be perceived by Congress," a senior Senate Republican aide said.