SCHILIRO PHIL

INSTITUTIONAL ET SECTORAL MIGRANTS. http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/chrntran08/whstaffbios.html -- Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs (11/15) Philip M. Schiliro is currently the Director of Congressional Relations for the transition team of President-Elect . Schiliro was a senior advisor to Senator Obama's presidential campaign. He has worked in the Congress for more than 25 years. Schiliro served as the Chief of Staff to Representative and the House Oversight Committee in the House, and the Policy Director for Senate Democratic Leader and Staff Director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committees in the Senate.

White House Advisor Phil Schiliro ’78 Keynoter at Mid-Year Commencement http://news.hofstra.edu/2013/12/12/hofstra-university-2013-midyear-commencement-activities-and-honoree-sun- dec-22-1130-a-m/5 White House advisor Phil Schiliro ’78 urged graduates who earned their diplomas on Sunday to take a moment to thank the people who have helped them along the way because “if you are successful, and all of you are — you’re here today — somebody along the line gave you some help.” “There may be a couple of you who have done it completely on your own. I can’t say that. I didn’t,” Schiliro told the 550 undergraduate, graduate and law students who participated in Hofstra’s mid-year commencement ceremony at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex. He drove home his point by recognizing several Hofstra professors who influenced and inspired him, including Dean Bernard Firestone, Professor Michael D’Innocenzo and Professor Emeritus Herb Rosenbaum. Schiliro, who has spent more than 30 years in Washington working on a wide range of issues, served as President Obama’s Director of Legislative Affairs from 2009-2010 and was a Special Advisor to the President in 2011. Earlier this month, he returned to the White House at the President’s request to assist with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. As President Obama’s liaison to Congress, Schiliro played a critical role in the passage of many laws, including the Affordable Care Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the economic stimulus package, Wall Street and credit card reforms, the Family Smoking and Prevention Tobacco Control Act, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and numerous others. Schiliro majored in political science at Hofstra University, and concentrated on environmental law as a student at Lewis and Clark Law School. He also served as editor-in-chief of the Law Review. After law school, Schiliro spent more than 25 years as Congressman Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) Chief of Staff and the Staff Director for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In 2004 he spent a year in the U.S. Senate as the Staff Director for the Senate Leadership Committees and the Policy Director for the Democratic Leader, Senator Tom Daschle.

https://law.lclark.edu/live/news/15693-change-from-the-inside Lewis & Clark Law School Change from the inside March 12, 2012 Phil Schiliro ’81, when he was special advisor to President Barack Obama By Melody Finnemore

Phil Schiliro’s passion for protecting the environment dates back to when he was a teenager growing up in , . As a high school senior in 1974, he discovered that a local business was polluting a reservoir near his neighborhood. The young Schiliro united his environmental studies classmates, community residents, and local media in a grassroots movement that succeeded in stopping the contamination. Continued interest in environmental law drew the Hofstra University graduate to Lewis & Clark Law School. Schiliro says the time he spent in the internationally renowned program was invaluable, both personally and professionally. “It was terrific. The professors were first rate and I made lifelong friends with other students,” he says. “And Law Review”—he was editor—“was an extraordinary experience.” Schiliro moved to Washington, D.C., in 1981. He worked on the Clean Air Act for U.S. Representative Tim Wirth during the 1982 reauthorization fight. From 1983 to 2004, Schiliro served as legislative director and then chief of staff for U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, who at the time chaired the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment. The subcommittee’s jurisdiction included the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, pesticide laws, and global warming legislation. From 1997 to 2004, Schiliro also was the Democratic chief of staff for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Schiliro joined Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004 as staff director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committees and served as the minority leader’s policy director. The following year, he returned to Waxman’s office as chief of staff and to his position as chief of staff for the House Oversight Committee. In 2008, Schiliro joined Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as director of the Washington, D.C., office. Following the election, he served as director of the Congressional Liaison Office for President Obama’s transition team before being named as an assistant to the president and director of legislative affairs for the White House. In 2011, Schiliro moved from the Office of Legislative Affairs to a new position as a special advisor to the president, where he served through Fall of 2011. Schiliro is markedly understated about the impact of his work on Capitol Hill. Plenty of others have been vocal about it, though. A recent profile by noted that Schiliro was director of legislative affairs during the time Congress passed the $787 billion economic stimulus package, as well as health care and financial regulatory reforms. The Post profile also lauded Schiliro for his role in an investigation of Haliburton that determined the company had overcharged taxpayers for its work as a Department of Defense subcontractor. Among the 2,000 reports filed during Schiliro’s work with the House Oversight Committee, another investigation dug into Blackwater USA’s involvement in the fatal shootings of Iraqi civilians. Waxman has credited Schiliro with helping pass the 1990 Clean Air Act as well as increasing public awareness of toxic air pollutants and other contaminants. Schiliro worked toward the 1986 and 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act reauthorizations, overhauling pesticides law in the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, creating the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project, and investigating the tobacco industry (including the landmark 1994 hearing with the industry’s CEOs). Along with environmental protections, the use of steroids in Major League Baseball was an issue of personal concern to Schiliro. A longtime fan of the game, Schiliro played a key role in the highly visible congressional hearings that brought the problem—especially its impact on teenage athletes—to light. Waxman noted that Schiliro’s commitment to the issue helped focus attention on the use of steroids in all sports. When President Obama selected Schiliro as his legislative affairs director, Waxman noted that the president was fortunate to have such a valuable member on his team. “[Schiliro] understands the Congress and the legislative process probably better than anyone else around,” Waxman told the Post. “He’s calm and rational and has a very good perspective on how to get things done.”

Obama, quoted by in 2009 regarding Schiliro’s efforts to get the stimulus package approved, echoed Waxman’s admiration. “Phil had as much to do as anyone in getting this highly significant piece of legislation through Congress and I will rely on him heavily in the months to come,” the president said. “[He’s] as valuable a member of our team as any. He’s extremely knowledgeable about the legislative process, as calm and steady under pressure as anyone I’ve ever seen.” Schiliro and his wife, Jody, a documentary filmmaker, have a daughter. He prefers to remain a private figure on a very public stage. While his high-profile work comes with its share of challenges, he says that after three decades of working in politics he still appreciates the chance to help make a difference. “The opportunity to be part of a team working on issues of national importance is very rewarding. From my years at Lewis & Clark to today, I’ve seen time and again how the government can be a powerful force of good in our country.”

ARTICLE Fondemental http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-schiliro/the-straightforward-expla_b_6736746.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-schiliro/the-straightforward-expla_b_6736746.html

The Straightforward Explanation for "Established by the State" in the Affordable Care Act Phil Schiliro (Auteur), Fmr. Director of Legislative Affairs in the White House

In the coming weeks much will be written about King v. Burwell, the latest attack on the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court. The law's opponents argue the statute authorizes tax credits only in the states that operate their own health insurance marketplaces (also known as exchanges). If this were correct -- and subsidies weren't available to Americans living in states where the federal government operates the exchanges -- as many as 11 million Americans could lose health coverage and insurance markets in 34 states could be upended. The lynchpin of their argument is a mistaken interpretation of a single phrase -- "an Exchange established by the State" -- in the definition of "Premium Assistance Amount" in one sentence of a long and complicated law. They say these few words can refer only to the exchanges run by the states, not the 34 exchanges operated by the federal government for states that elected not to run their own. But the explanation for these words is actually not complicated. The concept of 50 state-specific exchanges is essential to the law. Regardless of whether a state operates its own exchange or the federal government does it for the state, each state will have its own distinct roster of insurance companies and rate options. The identifier "an Exchange established by the State" is a clarifying reference to a particular state-specific exchange, as opposed to the exchanges operating in other states (this is what's referred to as a "term of art"). When the IRS determines the appropriate tax credit, distinguishing between state-specific exchanges matters: Texans are supposed to get tax credits based on the cost of health insurance in the Texas exchange, not New York's or North Dakota's. In the broader context, it's even clearer: one section of the law directs the IRS to take into account the rates charged in "an Exchange established by the State" in setting premium assistance, while another provides that federally run exchanges are "such Exchange within the State," and are to be treated as exchanges established by the states. It's just an attempt at statutory clarity. And it amounts to nothing more than that, no matter how creatively the law's opponents try to interpret those words. Of course, the lawyers challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA) haven't only invented a new interpretation, but they have concocted an entire theory that Congress and the President intended this result. This is preposterous and defies the statutory language, the context and design of the law, and the legislative history. The ACA was built on three interlocking principles: prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing conditions, requiring everyone to have insurance to prevent adverse selection from undermining the market, and providing tax credits to help everyone afford coverage. Although the ACA obviously has attracted implacable opponents, it's silly even for them to argue that a single, unremarkable phrase could be interpreted in a way that upends the law's fundamental architecture. It's even more ridiculous to pretend the ACA was intended to operate in the dysfunctional and self-defeating way its legal opponents insist it should. As President Obama's Director of Legislative Affairs when the ACA was enacted, I know (because I was part of them) that the President was briefed in memos and in meetings on every imaginable issue as the legislation worked its way through Congress. The notion that the law would base tax credits on whether states set up their own exchanges -- and deny subsidies to American families as a result -- never came up. When Democratic leaders huddled in the White House in January 2010 to resolve differences between the Senate and House bills, this issue never came up. When the Congressional Budget Office and even the Heritage Foundation analyzed the ACA, this issue never came up. When the law was debated in the Senate for 25 days--in the second longest continuous Senate floor debate in history -- this issue never came up. And when the President met all day with Republicans and Democrats in February 2010 on national television--in a final attempt to find common ground -- this issue never came up. It never came up because everyone had a common understanding. No one working for or against the bill interpreted the language to discriminate between Americans depending on whether their states set up an exchange. That's because the law states that a credit "shall be allowed" to every "applicable taxpayer." And no Democratic representative or senator from a state with a Republican governor would ever have voted for the ACA if it meant their constituents might run the risk of being denied tax credits simply because a governor might refuse to set up an exchange. King v. Burwell can't be taken lightly because the Supreme Court decided to hear the case. But the plain language, the context, and the intent all couldn't be clearer. http://www.rollcall.com/issues/56_84/-203453-1.html

ROLL CALL A Quiet Departure for Obama’s Top Lobbyist By Jennifer Bendery Roll Call Staff Feb. 16, 2011, Midnight

Even on his way out the door, White House Legislative Affairs Director Phil Schiliro still won’t take credit for his role in making the 111th Congress one of the most productive in decades. Schiliro, the quiet force behind President Barack Obama’s strategy for working with Capitol Hill, will point to just about everyone else on his team of 20 as the reason for the president’s successful legislative run over the past two years. But the former chief of staff to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) concedes he did one thing right as he oversaw negotiations between the White House and Congressional leaders on dozens of major initiatives, the least of which included health care reform, a financial regulatory overhaul and an economic stimulus. “I didn’t mess it up,” he said. Lost in this week’s news about Egypt and Obama’s budget recommendation was the fact that Schiliro stepped down from his post as the top White House liaison. Not that he’ll be going far: He’s moving to another office 20 feet away, where next week he’ll begin his less defined job as a senior adviser to Obama. Schiliro said he was ready for a change after his “pretty intense job” of running the legislative affairs shop, though he said he wasn’t leaving because of burnout. “It was a great two years. Most people who worked in Congressional affairs who have the job I had do it for two years or a little bit less,” he said. “It seemed like a good time to make a change.” Schiliro can point to victories during his time in the legislative affairs shop — the biggest he said was averting an economic collapse in early 2009 — but he will clarify that none is his alone. They are “the president’s successes” and “the team’s successes,” he said. And Schiliro has consistently steered clear of the press throughout his White House run because, he said, he didn’t want any focus on himself while his team was working to get things done. “Interviews don’t advance what the president’s agenda is,” he said. But his value at the White House is clear: When Schiliro initially made it known that he planned to vacate his post at the end of the last Congress, White House Chief of Staff William Daley stepped in and persuaded him to stay on longer amid a major staff restructuring. Daley was among the changes; he recently replaced . “Phil has made extraordinary contributions to the president’s success, and I’ve asked him to slow his departure in order to lend his wise counsel and guidance in the transition period ahead,” Daley wrote in an e-mail to White House staff last month. And Schiliro’s top deputies have described him as “a legislative strategic genius” and “the fulcrum” that helped translate Obama’s top priorities into a practical plan of action for

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/07/obama-phil-schiliro_n_4405282.html

Obama Taps Phil Schiliro, Former Top Aide, To Work On Health Care Law By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Posted: 12/07/2013 5:03 pm EST Updated: 12/07/2013 5:03 pm EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is bringing a former top aide with deep ties to Congress back to the White House to help get his health care overhaul back on track after a bungled rollout. Officials say Phil Schiliro, who as Obama's top liaison to Capitol Hill helped push the Affordable Care Act through Congress, is taking on a short-term assignment to help coordinate policy surrounding the law. He'll work with the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for and Medicaid Services, other agencies and members of Congress. The Medicare agency oversees the federal website that uninsured people are supposed to use to buy government- subsidized health insurance. Starting next year, virtually all Americans will be required to have coverage or face fines. But a cascade of technical problems overwhelmed HealthCare.gov when it went live on Oct. 1, frustrating consumers and sending Obama's poll ratings into a dive. After weeks of repairs, the administration announced last week that the worst of the technical problems had been fixed and that the site was working reasonably well for most users. But it's too really to say if the website has really turned a corner. It's also quite likely that the White House will stumble into another crisis as officials try to implement a complex, politically polarizing law with broad effects on society. Schiliro's appointment is comparable to that of , the management expert and former Obama administration official who returned in mid-October to oversee the rescue of the dysfunctional website. But where Zients is an organizational troubleshooter, Schiliro brings years of political connections and health care policy expertise to an insular White House. Prior to his first stint in the administration, he had been a longtime adviser to California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, one of the co-authors of the health care law. Schiliro left the White House about two years ago and moved to New Mexico, where he opened a business consulting for nonprofits. In a statement provided by the White House, Schiliro said he wants to help because the law is important to Obama. The health care law is the signature domestic achievement of Obama's presidency, but it's been challenged every step of the way by congressional Republicans and other opponents. The website woes took the White House by surprise, rattling Obama's own supporters and undermining their confidence in the administration's basic competence. Then Obama sailed into another political storm: millions of people who buy insurance individually were getting cancellation notices because their policies did not measure up to the standards of the health care law. Amid growing criticism, the president apologized and proposed a workaround involving temporary extensions of current policies. On Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers facing tough re-elections next year began wavering. Word of Schiliro's return also comes as the White House seems to have realized that the success of the health care overhaul can't be taken for granted. The president himself has plunged into a renewed effort to promote the law. "We moved to New Mexico to go in a new direction, but this is important to the president," Schiliro said in the statement. "A law that guarantees coverage to millions of Americans, improves quality and saves hundreds of billions of dollars is worth fighting for. I hope to help with that effort." Schiliro will work with White House-based health care advisers, including and Chris Jennings. first reported on Schiliro's return.

http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/healthcare White House relies on core healthcare team President Obama's overhaul hinges on six crucial individuals and their skill at negotiating behind closed doors. Now Rahm Emanuel, Nancy-Ann DeParle and the others will see if their efforts pay off. October 21, 2009|Peter Nicholas http://articles.latimes.com/print/2009/oct/21/nation/na-healthcare-team21

WASHINGTON — Peter R. Orszag, the White House official steeped in budget detail, is now so at home in the Capitol that he freely grabs Coke Zeros from the Senate Finance Committee's private stash when he talks healthcare costs with aides. Nancy-Ann DeParle, who joined the administration after a career that included running Medicare, is routinely hooked into a nightly 9 o'clock conference call for legislative staff. And nearly every week, presidential aide Jim Messina eats the same steak-and-fries plate at the same table in the same restaurant with his old boss, Sen. Max Baucus -- the man responsible for the centrist bill that will shape the final healthcare plan. Months ago, when President Obama made healthcare his top domestic priority and picked the White House team to make it happen, he selected individuals for just this moment -- not for the beginning or the middle of the campaign, but for the end of the fight. That time has arrived for Obama and for the six people he chose. With deep ties to Capitol Hill, the team is designed for the inside game unfolding now in House and Senate offices. Their job includes gathering intelligence, assessing what lawmakers want and devising compromises to win over balky members without alienating others. But their paramount goal has been -- and remains -- to keep the process moving irrepressibly forward and on a practicable track. They believe that letting it bog down or veer in some damaging direction, even for a moment, could doom the whole effort. The core group consists of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, legislative affairs director Phil Schiliro, communications expert Dan Pfeiffer, Orszag, Messina and DeParle. Each brings particular experience and skills to the task. Each is first and foremost an inside player, comfortable operating behind the scenes. The administration suffered some setbacks because of that focus during the spring and summer, when none of the six took on the role of a public surrogate for Obama. But the White House survived the early pummeling, and the emphasis on the inside game has paid off more recently. "The key factor in all major legislation, particularly healthcare, is momentum," Pfeiffer said. "Healthcare is a boulder: You're either pushing uphill or downhill. We've reached the top, we're headed downhill now, and we want it to stay that way." The mission is changing, however. Where before the focus was on committees, the battle is moving to the House and Senate floor. Now, Obama's crew will be at the table with lawmakers behind closed doors, crafting compromises to meet attacks from a determined Republican minority and well-financed industry groups. Obama will play an important role, phoning wavering legislators and trying to coax them to vote yes. But success also hinges on the negotiating savvy of the team. "All of us are known," Emanuel said in an interview. "We've been through a lot together. We don't start from scratch, either inside or in dealing with the Senate and House. . . . You're in a business of relationships: knowing what people can and can't do, explaining things and [ascertaining] what they care about." None of this looks to be easy. The White House wants to pass a healthcare bill with a 60-vote majority in the Senate, which would forestall a filibuster. It is up to Emanuel and company to hit that target. Though there is ample overlap, each member of Obama's healthcare team has a different focus. Emanuel oversees the operation. A former congressman from Chicago, he describes himself as a negotiator, but he is also deeply involved in policy, political strategy and communication

As an illustration of his role, twice over the past month he spoke to union leaders and asked them not to publicly criticize the healthcare legislation advancing in the Senate. He succeeded the first time and was rebuffed the second. Orszag is the resident budget whiz. A congressional aide recalls watching him page through a fat, dog-eared copy of the U.S. tax code one Sunday in a Senate office, during a conversation about the crucial and politically sensitive question of how to pay for the healthcare plan. But Orszag's staff also describes his human side. One night in August he had dinner at a Greek restaurant in Portland, Maine, with Republican Sen. Olympia J. Snowe. He mentioned that he was going to climb New Hampshire's Mt. Washington the next day. Snowe warned him to be careful, and Orszag, after reaching the summit, sent her an e-mail to assure her he was OK. When the Senate Finance Committee voted to pass a healthcare bill last week, Snowe was the lone Republican to vote yes. DeParle, a former healthcare advisor to President Clinton, has embedded herself in the Capitol., When Obama hired DeParle, he told her he wanted her to be the "point guard" of the healthcare team. The goal seems to be ubiquity -- blanketing Congress with White House aides. By her count, DeParle has met one-on-one with 135 people, part of a strategy she mapped out with Schiliro….. No one from the team is dictating to Congress. "We've been clear on some guardrails. We don't want to increase the deficit, things like that," DeParle said. "Otherwise we've given them some license to work within their caucuses." Both Schiliro and Messina consult with committee chairs to identify wavering members who should get a phone call or personal meeting with the president. Messina also dispenses political advice, showing up at meetings of senior legislative aides to share poll numbers. The White House message is that if healthcare fails this year, that could spell trouble for Democrats in the 2010 midterm election. Obama aides point to the Democratic Party's 1994 midterm losses after Clinton's healthcare plan collapsed. "There's a myth about health reform that came out of 1993-'94: that the Democrats lost the majority because they took on health reform," said one White House aide, who requested anonymity when discussing the ongoing negotiations. "Our view is that it's not that they took on health reform. It's that they didn't get it done. . . . And when you're the governing majority and you take on a major issue and you fail, you're going to pay a political price for that.

WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES Rahm Emanuel, Chief of staff The quarterback of the White House campaign, Emanuel oversees policy development, congressional outreach and communications efforts. Emanuel not only has the president's ear, but also a deep understanding of Congress. A former Chicago-area congressman, he led the Democrats' successful effort to retake control of the House in 2006. That job required him to learn the dynamics at play in swing districts and moderate districts, many of which are now held by Democratic lawmakers who are wavering on the health legislation. Jim Messina, Deputy chief of staff Messina has an almost familial relationship with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the committee that handled the most important Senate version of the health legislation. His deep knowledge of Congress comes from stints as chief of staff to Baucus and others. Now he gathers intelligence on what lawmakers are thinking about the legislation, which allows the White House to calculate what policy ideas would draw votes to the legislation or drive them away. Phil Schiliro, Assistant to the president for legislative affairs Schiliro also works on outreach to Congress, advising Obama on which lawmakers he needs to meet with or phone. He is a former chief of staff to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, who has helped him determine which lawmakers need presidential hand-holding. Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director, Office of Health Reform DeParle is an expert in health policy and the healthcare economy, having been Medicare and Medicaid administrator under President Clinton and served on the boards of several health industry companies. A Rhodes scholar with a Harvard law degree, DeParle has met one-on-one with 135 members of Congress as part of the health legislation effort. Dan Pfeiffer, Deputy communications director A onetime aide to former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Pfeiffer is the media fireman of the health campaign. If a negative story is in the works, he develops a rapid response by talking with specialized media or bloggers. When lawmakers were rocked by tumultuous town halls in August, he helped put the White House on a more aggressive footing, with measures including websites and videos to counter inaccurate information about Democratic healthcare goals. Peter R. Orszag, Director, Officeof Managementand Budget The former head of Congress' budget office, Orszag helps determine the costs and savings of various policy ideas. He also works on the politics of the effort, for example having dinner with pivotal Republican Sen. Olympia J. Snowe in her home state of Maine.