Howard, J

<p><b>strat ignor; http://www.sierraclub.org/books/strategicignorance/notes.asp
</b></p><p>
<strong>Page 163.</strong> ExxonMobil asks if Robert Watson can be

replaced: memo from Randy Randol, ExxonMobil Washington office, to John

Howard, White House Council on Environmental Quality, Feb. 6, 2001,

cited in "<a href="http://www.house.gov/reform/min/politicsandscience/" target="_blank">Politics and Science in the Bush Administration</a>,"

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform-Minority

Staff Special Investigative Division, prepared for Rep. Henry A. Waxman,

Aug. 2003.</p><p><b>===</b></p><p><b>Vinson & Elkins LLP</b> is a Houston, Texas-based "worldwide operation with over 700 lawyers in 11 offices across the globe." <a href="http://www.vinson-elkins.com/overview/overview.asp" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.vinson-elkins.com/overview/overview.asp" rel="nofollow">[1]</a></p>

<h2>Contents</h2>

<ul><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vinson%26_Elkins_LLP#The_GOP:John_L.Howard.2C_Jr."><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">The GOP: John L. Howard, Jr.</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vinson%26_Elkins_LLP#Vinson.26_Elkins.22National_Good_Government_Fund.22"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Vinson & Elkins "National Good Government Fund"</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vinson%26_Elkins_LLP#Contact_information"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Contact information</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vinson%26_Elkins_LLP#Related_SourceWatch_resources"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Related SourceWatch resources</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vinson_%26_Elkins_LLP#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li></ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

</a><h2><a name="The_GOP:John_L.Howard.2C_Jr." id="The_GOP:John_L.Howard.2C_Jr."><span class="mw-headline">The </span></a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=GOP" title="GOP" class="mw-redirect">GOP</a>: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_L.Howard,Jr.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="John L. Howard, Jr. (page does not exist)">John L. Howard, Jr.</a></h2>

<p>John Howard "served in the Bush Administration for eight years in

several senior roles. He was Governor [George W.] Bush's Environment and

Natural Resources Policy Director, where he crafted policy initiatives

and assisted with significant environmental and energy legislation. As a

volunteer, John helped draft presidential campaign policies and the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_National_Committee" title="Republican National Committee">Republican National Committee</a>'s 2000 Convention policy on the environment, natural resources, and energy. In Washington, D.C., he led the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush-Cheney_2000" title="Bush-Cheney 2000" class="mw-redirect">Bush-Cheney 2000</a>

Transition's environmental team. John served as the Senior Associate

Director (the Chairman's deputy for policy) for the White House Council

on Environmental Quality, where he assisted in developing President

Bush's energy plan and environmental, natural resource, and energy

policies. John also served as President Bush's Federal Environmental

Executive.

"In his federal roles, John worked extensively with the various

offices within the White House and with many federal agencies, including

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EPA" title="EPA" class="mw-redirect">EPA</a>, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, State, Defense, Energy, and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=GSA" title="GSA" class="mw-redirect">GSA</a>. He led and participated in interagency councils on energy, the POPs and Basel treaties, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Climate_change" title="Climate change">climate change</a>,

corporate average fuel economy, environmental metrics, green building,

electronic waste, Clear Skies and air quality, stewardship and

sustainability. He also represented the White House at the COP6 bis in

Bonn in 2001 on climate change." <a href="http://www.vinson-elkins.com/lawyers/lawyer_detail.asp?H4AttyID=000322375301" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.vinson-elkins.com/lawyers/lawyer_detail.asp?H4AttyID=000322375301" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>

</a><h2><a name="Vinson.26_Elkins.22National_Good_Government_Fund.22" id="Vinson.26_Elkins.22National_Good_Government_Fund.22"><span class="mw-headline">Vinson & Elkins "National Good Government Fund"</span></a></h2>

<p><a name="Vinson.26_Elkins.22National_Good_Government_Fund.22" id="Vinson.26_Elkins.22National_Good_Government_Fund.22">According to the </a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Leadership_Institute" title="Leadership Institute" class="mw-redirect">Leadership Institute</a>'s 2004 PAC Study, Vinson & Elkins' <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Political_action_committee" title="Political action committee">political action committee</a> the "National Good Government Fund", a qualifying non-party PAC, <a href="http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/pac/detailPAC.cfm?id=C00032797" class="external text" title="http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/pac/detailPAC.cfm?id=C00032797" rel="nofollow">contributed</a> $87,000 to a total of 69 candidates, including $5,000 each to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" class="mw-redirect">George W. Bush</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Cornyn" title="John Cornyn">John Cornyn</a>, and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Thomas_D.DeLay" title="Thomas D. DeLay">Thomas D. DeLay</a>.

</a><h2><a name="Contact_information" id="Contact_information"><span class="mw-headline">Contact information</span></a></h2>

<p><a name="Contact_information" id="Contact_information">2300 First City Tower

1001 Fannin Street, Suite 2300

Houston, TX 77002-6760

Phone: 713 758-2222

Fax: 713 758-2346

Web: </a><a href="http://www.vinson-elkins.com" class="external free" title="http://www.vinson-elkins.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.vinson-elkins.com</a>

</a><h2><a name="Related_SourceWatch_resources" id="Related_SourceWatch_resources"><span class="mw-headline">Related SourceWatch resources</span></a></h2>

<ul><a name="Related_SourceWatch_resources" id="Related_SourceWatch_resources" /><li><a name="Related_SourceWatch_resources" id="Related_SourceWatch_resources" /><a name="Related_SourceWatch_resources" id="Related_SourceWatch_resources" /><a name="Related_SourceWatch_resources" id="Related_SourceWatch_resources" /><a name="Related_SourceWatch_resources" id="Related_SourceWatch_resources" /><a name="Related_SourceWatch_resources" id="Related_SourceWatch_resources" /><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alberto_R.Gonzales" title="Alberto R. Gonzales">Alberto R. Gonzales</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_and_the_Enron_connection" title="Bush administration and the Enron connection">Bush administration and the Enron connection</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Enron" title="Enron" class="mw-redirect">Enron</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Halliburton" title="Halliburton" class="mw-redirect">Halliburton</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kenneth_Lay" title="Kenneth Lay" class="mw-redirect">Kenneth Lay</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Knox_D.Nunnally" title="Knox D. Nunnally">Knox D. Nunnally</a></li></ul>

</a><h2><a name="External_links" id="External_links"><span class="mw-headline">External links</span></a></h2>

<ul><a name="External_links" id="External_links" /><li><a name="External_links" id="External_links" /><a name="External_links" id="External_links" /><a name="External_links" id="External_links" /><a name="External_links" id="External_links" /><a name="External_links" id="External_links" /><a href="http://www.tpj.org/page_view.jsp?pageid=103&pubid=46" class="external text" title="http://www.tpj.org/page_view.jsp?pageid=103&pubid=46" rel="nofollow">"Dollar Docket #18: High Court's Top Donor Bucks Disclosure Law. Vinson & Elkins' PAC disclosures incomplete,"</a> Texans for Public Justice website.</li><li><a href="http://www.tpj.org/page_view.jsp?pageid=97&pubid=40" class="external text" title="http://www.tpj.org/page_view.jsp?pageid=97&pubid=40" rel="nofollow">"Dollar Docket #24: High Court Candidates Raise $1 Million A Seat. TLR, TMA, big firms lead donors,"</a> Texans for Public Justice website.</li><li>Nathan Newman, <a href="http://www.knowthecandidates.org/ktc/BushGang/albertogonzalesexpose.htm" class="external text" title="http://www.knowthecandidates.org/ktc/BushGang/albertogonzalesexpose.htm" rel="nofollow">"Alberto

Gonzales, White House General Counsel. Controversy Surrounds Texas

Justices Acceptance of Donations and Rulings for Cheney Firm,</a>" Yale Law Campaign for a Legal Election, KnowTheCandidates.org, undated.</li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Christopher_Ruddy" title="Christopher Ruddy">Christopher Ruddy</a>, <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1996/8/07/222330" class="external text" title="http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1996/8/07/222330" rel="nofollow">"Ex-Prosecutor Moves to Firm Tied to Whitewater,"</a> <i><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=NewsMax" title="NewsMax" class="mw-redirect">NewsMax</a></i>, August 7, 1996.</li><li><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pressreleases/july22_99_release.htm" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/pressreleases/july22_99_release.htm" rel="nofollow">"Bundles Proliferate in Latest Presidential Filings. Bush Leads the Pack with Ten Firms Giving $70,000 or More,"</a> <i>OpenSecrets.org</i>,

July 22, 1999: "His top donor to date, the Houston law firm of Vinson

& Elkins, has already delivered $184,850 to the Bush campaign."</li><li>David Lazarus, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/02/15/BU132842.DTL" class="external text" title="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/02/15/BU132842.DTL" rel="nofollow">"Spotlight on Enron's law firm,"</a> <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>, February 15, 2002.</li><li>kos, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/4/22/1551/39504" class="external text" title="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/4/22/1551/39504" rel="nofollow">"More on O'Neill and Margaret Wilson,"</a> <i>Daily Kos</i>, April 21, 2004.</li></ul>

<div id="catlinks" class="catlinks"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:International" title="Category:International">International</a></span> | <span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Law_firms" title="Category:Law firms">Law firms</a></span> | <span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:United_States" title="Category:United States">United States</a>

===
</span>Release Date: 01/26/2006
Contact Information: Dave Ryan, (202) 564-4355 / ryan.dave@epa.gov

<font face="Arial">(1/26/06) EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson today

appointed John L. Howard, Jr. as the new chair of the National Advisory

Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT), a group that

since 1988 has provided advice to the EPA Administrator on a broad range

of environmental policy, technology, and management issues. NACEPT

represents diverse interests from academia, industry, non-governmental

organizations, environmental groups, and local, state, and tribal

governments. It has directed the work of approximately 30 standing

committees (each one established to address a specific issue), and has

produced over 50 major reports containing over 1,000 recommendations to

the EPA Administrator. Mr. Howard currently is a Partner at Vinson

& Elkins LLP, one of the world's largest international law firms.

He has previously served as the Senior Associate Director for the White

House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environment and Natural

Resources Policy Director for then-Governor Bush in Texas. He also

served as the Federal Environmental Executive, promoting environmental

stewardship throughout the federal government. He graduated Phi Beta

Kappa from Baylor University and received his law degree from the

University of Texas. He resides in Austin, Texas, with his family. </font>

puff:
<h2>White House Insiders [The Baylor Line]</h2>

<h3>by Hope Katz Gibbs

The Baylor Line

Fall 2001

Photo here of Nancy Dorn © <a href="http://www.katherinelambert.com/">Katherine Lambert</a> </h3>

<p><span class="caps">GEORGE</span> W. <span class="caps">BUSH</span> <span class="caps">OBVIOUSLY</span> <span class="caps">BELIEVES</span> IN <span class="caps">CONTINUITY</span>.

During his years as the governor of Texas, he tapped several Baylor

alumni to hold key positions on his staff. And when he became the

forty-third President of the United States in 2001, a handful of them

were among those selected to follow him to Washington, D.C.

What is it like to work in the White House? Pin on your security

pass and prepare yourself for a tour of the executive branch’s corridors

as these Baylor alums share their stories.

<strong>It’s environmental: John Howard, Class of 1985</strong>

One of the first Baylor grads to get word he’d be making the move

from Texas to the White House was John Howard ’85, the new senior

associate director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (<span class="caps">CEQ</span>).

Howard, who had spent the last <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">four years as Bush’s natural resources

policy advisor in Texas</span>, says he was thrilled to have been chosen.

“Working for Mr. Bush in the governor’s office was great, but

working in the administration in Washington has been unbelievably

exciting,” says Howard, who is no stranger to the Washington

metropolitan area. He worked in D.C. as an environmental attorney from

1988 to 1994.

Today, he spends his days on the third floor of the Old Executive

Building, where most White House staffers have offices, just around the

corner from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. From a three-room suite, he

coordinates federal environmental efforts.

It’s a big job. The <span class="caps">CEQ</span>, established by

Congress in 1969 in accordance with the National Environmental Policy

Act, advises the president on such critical issues as determining

allowable arsenic levels in drinking water, disposing of nuclear waste,

and re-introducing grizzly bears in parts of Idaho. The <span class="caps">CEQ</span>

also reports annually on the state of the environment, ensures that all

federal agencies conduct required studies of potential environmental

impact before making policy decisions, and acts as a referee when

agencies disagree over environmental assessments.

The <span class="caps">CEQ</span> eventually will employ 24

full-time staffers. But prior to June 25, when D.C. environmental

attorney Jim Connaughton was confirmed by the U.S. Congress and sworn in

as the council’s chair, the office had a staff of only eight—with

Howard at the helm.

“My life is still in a box,” says Howard, apologizing for the spare

trappings in his temporary quarters. Even if the council’s office

situation were final, it’s not likely Howard would have time to

decorate. Beginning his day just after dawn Howard usually fills the

next ten hours with meetings. It’s usually late in the evening, after a

dinner meeting or an official reception, when Howard returns to the

Arlington, Virginia, home he shares with his wife, Ann, and their three

children, ages ten, eight, and six.

It’s a grueling schedule, Howard admits, but what makes his job demanding is the magnitude of the issues he works on daily.

“We’re dealing with some big, hairy problems, and no single issue

has a simple answer,” he says. “But President Bush is very

results-oriented. We are constantly trying to come up with constructive,

creative strategies that will help ease or solve any given problem.”

Bush’s environmental policies have been a magnet for controversy and

criticism. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush faced

accusations that, as governor of Texas, he had allowed his state to fall

behind the nation in terms of environmental standards and pollution

control. Further criticism was hurled at the new administration when

Christine Todd Whitman, the new <span class="caps">EPA</span>

administrator and a former New Jersey governor, announced that Bush

would with draw the U.S. signature on the Kyoto Protocol on global

warming.

In addition, an investigative report from the Center for Public

Integrity noted in March that “the composition of the team that advised

Bush on policies during his transition to the presidency signals a new

era of a weakening federal role and a bias toward free-market solutions

in complying with environmental regulations.

The center further criticized Bush’s transition team for having undue influence on Whitman. Howard, who was part of that

transition team, says their j ob was simply to prepare Whitman for her

confirmation hearing and to identify the key issues she would likely

face during her initial days as head of the <span class="caps">EPA</span>.

“We did that and nothing more,” he counters. The general criticism

of Bush, Howard says, is born of a lack of understanding combined with

misinformation, and he contends that the public and media simply don’t

understand the common-sense goals Bush is trying to achieve with his

environmental policies. “In time, when we have more bodies to staff this

office, we’ll do a much better job of explaining exactly what we are

doing and why,” offers Howard, admitting there are days when addressing

hot-button issues can be very stressful.

But dealing with stress on the job is nothing new for Howard, who

has spent much of his career trying to blend environmental law with

corporate desires and common sense. After getting his law degree from

the University of Texas in 1988, he worked at the law firm of Bracewell

and Patterson as counsel to industries, financial institutions, and

local governments. There, he developed a reputation for being smart,

hard working, and fair.

That reputation caught the attention of the Bush administration. Not

long after he’d helped establish a new environmental department in

Bracewell and Patterson’s Austin office, Howard received a call from the

governor’s office asking if he’d be interested in being policy director

of the environment and natural resources department.

“I don’t have a political bone in my body,” says Howard, who at the

time was a registered Democrat (albeit a conservative one). “But when

the governor calls, it is hard to say no. “In 1996 he took the job and

spent the remainder of the decade developing policy and legislative

initiatives for the state of Texas.

When Bush started his bid for the presidency, Howard found himself

defending Bush’s Texas environmental record, which he says included such

unheralded achievements as the signing of tough clean air and clean

water legislation. Howard also prepared the Republican National

Committee’s platform on natural resources, the environment, and energy.

Paul Fox, managing partner of the Austin office of Bracewell and

Patterson and Howard’s former boss, says he always knew Howard would

accomplish great things.

“John has more integrity than just about anyone I’ve ever met,” says

Fox. “He’s a real solid citizen and a credit to Baylor. He assumed a

position of importance with Governor Bush at an early age and did so

well that he’s now got a very important leadership position with the

administration in Washington, D.C.”

The remarkable nature of the opportunity isn’t lost on Howard. “This

has been a tremendous adventure,” he says. “Granted, this job is a lot

of work. I deal with so many different issues every day that by

nightfall my brain hurts. But working in the White House is something I

wouldn’t have missed for anything.”

<strong>At Cheney’s Side: Nancy Dorn, Class of 1981</strong>

The Baylor grad to have landed the highest-ranking White House staff

job is Nancy Dorn ’81, one of the six people who work directly for Vice

President Richard Cheney. As the head of his legislative affairs staff,

she is responsible for handling foreign policy and defense issues, as

well as key domestic matters.

It’s a job she knows well. Dorn was special assistant for

legislative affairs to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush. Dorn

has also known Cheney for years, since he served under the elder Bush

as defense secretary. Additionally, Cheney was in the U.S. House of

Representatives when Dorn landed her first federal government job

working for Texas Congressman Tom Loeffler.

Dorr’s career reached new heights in 1991 when the Lubbock native

was appointed assistant secretary of the Army for civil works. Then 33,

she was the youngest person and the first woman nominated by the

president, and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate, to hold the position.

“It was an incredible job,” says Dorn, who was responsible for the

management and policy direction of the Army Corps of Engineers—a $3.9

billion program that includes domestic flood control, navigation and

environmental projects, and support for a number of federal, state, and

local agencies, as well as foreign governments.

She became famous for her “chutzpah”—at least, that’s how she was

described in a 1993 Armed Forces journal “Darts and Laurels” column. It

gave her a laurel for playing a “key role in convincing congressional

oversight committees of the need to reorganize and shrink the Army Corps

of Engineers, whose water projects have long been synonymous with

congressional pork.”

It turned out that Congress had refused to fund previous

restructuring plans drafted by the Corps. Dorn developed a new plan-one

that eliminated 2,600 of the Corps’ 33,000 jobs and closed five of

eleven division offices-which won congressional support.

In 1993, shortly after President Bill Clinton took office, Dorn left

the government and established The Nancy Dorn Company, an independent

consulting firm specializing in public affairs and government relation’s

strategies for corporate and public service enterprises.

She had an 8-year-old daughter, Caroline, and a son, Patrick, 6.

From 1996 to 2000, she went to work at the D.C. consulting firm Hooper,

Hooper, Owen, and Gould. There, she took on another government role in

1997 when President Clinton appointed her as a member of the board of

directors of the Inter-American Foundation, an independent agency that

works with private, regional, and international organizations to

strengthen the bonds between Latin America and the Caribbean.

When Dick Cheney called and asked her to help with the 2000

presidential campaign, Dorn figured she’d give the White House another

whirl. Now several months into her new position, she says things are

going well. “It’s good to be back in the middle of things,” says Dorn,

taking sips from one of two cans of Diet Coke on her desk. “I’m tired

and busy, busy, busy. But, as you can imagine, working here is very

exciting.”

One of the best parts of the job, she says, is working closely with

the vice president. “It is a real treat to be on his team,” notes Dorn.

“He is a quiet, low-key man who knows his stuff and works very well with

the president. We feel we will really be able to get a lot of things

done so long as we build a consensus around the important issues that

the president wants to tackle.”

Topping the list was the $1.35 trillion tax break that will come

over the next decade, which won approval from the U.S. House and Senate

on May 25. “It was a giant accomplishment,” says Dorn. In fact, it’s the

largest tax cut in two decades-a package that, among other things,

reduced top income tax rates and provided for a late-summer refund check

of approximately $300 for individuals and $600 for families.

Dorn’s new job has presented a few challenges, too, including the

defection of James Jeffords, the Vermont senator who announced the day

before the tax cut passed that he was leaving the Republican party to

become an independent-thereby shifting the power in the Senate from a

Republican majority to a Democratic one and reducing the president’s

clout. The Washington Post called it “the most glaring example of the

difficulties facing the Republican Party in its struggle to hold

together a fragile coalition under a party leadership dominated by

conservative white southern men.”

Dom simply shrugs off such opinions. “After working closely with two

other administrations, I have a different perspective than most

people,” she says. “I’ve seen the pitfalls and problems that can arise.”

Dorn admits that, this time around the White House, her world is a

little different than it was when she was a twenty-something working for

Reagan and the senior Bush. “I have two kids now, and the most quality

time I spend with them during the school year is when I drive them to

Holy Trinity [ a private school in Georgetown],” she says. “They go to

bed at 8:30 P.m., and I often don’t get home until long after that.”

Still, she believes it is a sacrifice worth making. “I’ll be here for the foreseeable future,” says Dorn.

<strong>Officially speaking: Tom Pratt, Class of 1981</strong>

From a small, brightly lit room in the White House Office of

Lettered Messages, Tom Pratt ’81 spends much of his day speaking for the

president.

That is, he drafts presidential messages, letters to constituents to

be signed by the president, and proclamations-such as the one President

Bush read on May 3, 2001, the National Day of Prayer.

“Turning to prayer in times of joy and celebration, strife and

tragedy is an integral part of our national heritage,” Pratt wrote for

Bush last spring. “When the first settlers landed on the rocky shores of

the New World, they celebrated with prayer, and the practice has

continued through our history.”

Pratt admits it isn’t always easy to marry Bush’s informal style

with the more formal speeches the president needs to make. “President

Bush doesn’t like flowery language at all,” says Pratt, a native of New

Orleans who graduated from Baylor with a degree in journalism. “But at a

national event, you can’t be informal. I usually have to write several

drafts before coming up with the right wording.”

Pratt notes, however, that he is happy to write as many drafts as

necessary, for he considers Bush to be “the best boss anyone could hope

for. He’s a great leader, was a good governor, and is already a very

good president.”

Bush was instrumental in transforming Pratt from a newspaper

reporter to a White House staff member. It was while working as a

reporter in Tyler in 1988 that Pratt met Bush, who was on the campaign

trail for his father. They met again when Bush was running for governor.

In December 1997, the governor’s office called Pratt and asked him

to apply for a position in the correspondence office. Though he

inter-viewed for the job, he didn’t get it. A few months later, though,

Pratt was covering a political event and Bush showed up. “I went up to

him to say hello, and he not only remembered who I was but knew I had

applied for a job in his office,” says Pratt. “He told me not to give

up, that a slot could open up.”

Several months later, one did. This time Pratt got the job. He moved

to Austin in October 1998, and in 2000 he was happy to support Bush in

his run for commander-in-chief.

“It’s not every day your boss runs for president,” says Pratt, who

recalls being amazed at the rush for information about Bush from the

media and organizations around the world. “Every day, we received

thousands of requests. It was all very exciting. It seemed that the

world revolved around Austin. “

Pratt’s investigative reporting skills came in handy last December

when he tracked down an Internet-based rumor that Bush had led a teen to

Christ. The story surfaced shortly after a banquet was held for his

campaign staff. Bush was said to have met a 16-year-old boy at the event

and to have witnessed to him for thirty minutes before leading him in a

conversion prayer. Pratt looked into the allegation and found that

reports of the incident were a hoax.

Despite his service to Bush, Pratt wasn’t sure if he’d be selected

to be part of the D.C. team when Bush was officially declared president.

“I prayed about it and thought about it a lot,” recalls Pratt, who on

February 2 received an official phone call. He had been chosen, but he

needed to show up for the new job in four days.

]“I came to Washington with two suitcases and lived on a friend’s

sofa until I found an apartment,” ‘says Pratt, who eventually rented one

in Alexandria, Virginia. “It has been a whirlwind, but I’m having the

time of my life.”

<strong>Based on faith: Don Willett, Class of 1988</strong>

Don Willett is in a hurry. As special assistant to the president and

director of law and policy for the newly formed White House Office of

Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (<span class="caps">OFBCI</span>), he is working on H.R. 7, the Community Solutions Act of 2001.

Willett has his work cut out for him. Described in an <span class="caps">OFBCI</span>

briefing memo as “a bipartisan, consensus law that widens options for

needy Americans, safeguards the vitality of faith-based charities, and

protects the rights of beneficiaries,” the bill includes several tax

incentives to promote private charitable giving and has broad support.

But one of the bill’s provisions, called Charitable Choice, has

generated controversy for enabling religious community charities to

compete against secular service groups for federal dollars.

Consequently, the 34-year-old lawyer makes several runs daily between

his large office in the Old Executive Building and Capitol Hill, trying

to convince legislators that the bill is worth passing.

“It’s an agenda very prone to demagoguery, caricature, and

distortion,” Willett says, “but President Bush is determined to assist

the heroic good Samaritans across America who are serving the least, the

last, and the lost. He ranks this agenda as his most distinctive,

signature domestic policy initiative.”

Willett says it’s important for government to be results –oriented

and to dismantle unfair obstacles that have blocked effective,

faith-based organizations from linking with government, whether

financially or not, to tackle various social ills.

“We are trying to get a faith-friendly agenda deeply embedded across

government to ensure we prize performance over process,” says Willett,

finally seated back at his large oak desk after a recent trip to

Constitution Avenue.

“There is no substitute for having people in the Cabinet who can

aggressively drive the president’s agenda,” he says, referring to the

White House’s new five Cabinet departments to complement Bush’s

faith-based initiative. “You can pass innumerable laws on Capitol Hill

and have fancy Rose Garden signing ceremonies, but it can be a hollow

victory unless you have Cabinet-level staff committed to implementing

those laws.”

Willett grew up in the small Texas town of Forney and has been

dedicated to helping George W Bush drive his agendas forward since April

1996, when he was chosen to be director of research and special

projects in the governor’s office. The job enabled him to be a versatile

jack-of-all-trades.

“Every other policy advisor in the office had a specific portfolio

and niche, I was able to be an all-around utility infielder, fielding

whatever hot grounder came my way,” explains Willett, who advised Bush

on issues ranging from tort reform and education to crime and health

care. “It was

a new adventure from e-mad to e-mail and phone call to phone call.”

The job was extremely satisfying for Willett, who seems to work best

when juggling several things. The first from his family to attend

college, he was a triple major, graduating from Baylor in economics,

public administration, and finance. He then earned a law degree, as well

as a master’s in political science, from Duke University.

After Duke, he wasn’t sure which type of law he wanted to pursue.

Fortunately, he had already landed a prestigious judicial clerkship

with judge Jerre Williams on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth

Circuit, where he could dabble in dozens of different areas. After

spending a year drafting judicial opinions, preparing bench memoranda,

and screening appeals on constitutional, criminal, and civil cases, he

decided he wanted to practice employment and labor law.

In 1993, he joined the Austin office of Haynes and Boone, a large Texas

law firm that was opening an employment law section on Congress Avenue.

At night he’d often come home and write articles for legal and policy

journals about aspects of Texas law he felt needed fixing. It was a

paper he wrote as a senior fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation

(<span class="caps">TPPF</span>) about the Texas criminal justice system that changed his professional trajectory.

“I sent an advance copy of it to Governor Bush’s policy director, Vance McMahan, who had recently spoken at a <span class="caps">TPPF</span>

board meeting about Governor Bush’s policy shop,” Willett explains.

“Vance had mentioned that they were looking to add depth to Mr. Bush’s

policy bench. In the cover letter, I mentioned that if there was

anything I could do to help Governor Bush to let me know.”

McMahan was evidently so impressed with the paper that he invited

Willett to lunch. “The lunch went well,” Willett remembers. “He never

mentioned a job, but I got the impression that I was being sized up.” It

wasn’t long before Willett received a formal call from McMahan inviting

him to join the governor’s staff.

Margaret Wilson, who worked as Bush’s general counsel and is now

deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce, remembers

Willett’s contributions to the governor’s team. She was impressed by his

work then, and she says he is excelling in his new role at the White

House.

“Don is a star at everything he does,” Wilson says. “He is highly

intelligent and committed to his cause no matter what it is. Plus, he’s a

good listener, and I think he learns a lot that way. Also, he has the

ability to establish an instant rapport with everyone he meets. Combine

all that, and he’s bound to be successful.”

Those characteristics also sound like the makings of a future

politician. “In my life I’ve experienced so many undreamed-of twists,

that I’ve found it best not to peer too far over the horizon,” says

Willett, who last October married another current White House staffer,

Tiffany Mahaffe, just three weeks before the election. “I am addicted to

the world of ideas and to public policy. After I leave the White House,

I plan to remain engaged in big-picture issues. I definitely will be

launching a campaign any time soon, but three words to always keep handy

are ‘never say never.”’</p>
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