- President Joe Biden’s new political nominees offered stimulating lectures to federal officials this week.
- Many government officials have been demoralized by frequent attacks by the Trump administration.
- “We are starting a new chapter,” said the new HHS team leader to that agency’s career staff.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
When Obama’s nominee Jenn Jones quit her job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in late 2016, she was concerned about what the next four years of the next Trump administration would mean for the country.
“I promised myself that if I had the opportunity to serve again, I would not hesitate,” she wrote on Wednesday in an email to HUD career officials.
Jones, now appointed by Biden, is back at the agency as chief of staff. She is one of the many veterans of the Obama administration that Biden’s team deployed in the federal government during her early days in office.
And his letter is one of five introductory emails that Insider obtained and that were sent by Biden employees at federal agencies while trying to reenergize employees after four difficult years under former President Donald Trump.
In addition to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, Biden’s team is facing a moral crisis at federal agencies. Trump regularly attacked the federal workforce during his tenure; one of his last changes was an executive order that tried to facilitate the dismissal of public officials.
Biden promised to trust and respect government officials, and his nominees tried to make inroads with the many federal officials who felt traumatized under the Trump administration.
“These past four years have tested our faith in our government, our democracy and, sometimes, our humanity,” wrote Jones in his email to the team. She thanked employees for their services “as we move as a team to America”.
At the Department of Health and Human Services, which has been at the center of the federal effort to fight the pandemic for almost a year, the agency’s new chief of staff, Sean McCluskie, on Wednesday thanked the workers for spending “countless days” and nights “working to improve the health and well-being of Americans while” deals with unprecedented obstacles.
“We are a team and together we are starting a new chapter,” McCluskie, a longtime aide to HHS secretary-nominee Xavier Becerra, told the team. “The challenges remain daunting, but I want you to know that we are in this together.”
‘Leaders who empower you’
Biden and his team promise to trust and respect government officials.
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP photo via Getty Images
Many officials across the federal government – including longtime civil servants who worked under Republican and Democratic presidents – were demoralized by what they viewed as extreme attacks by the Trump administration. The new political appointees acknowledged these concerns in their emails sent to employees this week, as they pledged to respect their work.
“While I cannot promise that the challenges of the past four years will be erased starting today, I can promise that members of the Biden team, myself included, will embrace the knowledge and experience of those who work in this building and across the country,” wrote Patricia Smith, senior advisor to the Department of Labor secretary. Smith returned to the department this week after serving as his lawyer during the Obama administration.
Energy Department officials have been informed by e-mail from their new chief of staff, Tarak Shah, that the new administration will rely on their scientific experience.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris have a bold science-based agenda to restore American leadership and rebuild our country to meet the great challenges of our time.
DOE is a critical part of that agenda, wrote Shah, another veteran of the Obama administration.
“I know you have the knowledge, the experience and the commitment to realize that ambitious vision,” wrote Shah. “I also know that to do this, you need leaders who empower you, provide you with the resources to do your job, prioritize health and safety in the workplace, and support a fair and equitable work environment.”
Among Biden’s first acts after taking office on January 20, was an executive order rescinding Trump’s ban on certain diversity and inclusion training funded by the federal government, including on racial sensitivity in government agencies.
General Services Administration officials – the generally obscure government agency that found itself at the center of the Trump team’s delay in initiating the presidential transition – also received a stimulating conversation from the new administration today.
“I know the critical importance of the agency’s mission, but I know there is much more to learn,” wrote agency agency administrator Katy Kale, who worked at the Obama White House. “I look forward to meeting and listening to many of you (virtually) in the coming weeks and months.”