Meet Joe Biden’s secret weapon: the woman who wrangles with Congress
In the early days of the Biden administration members of the new president’s White House legislative affairs team had a meet-and-greet with Senate Republicans’ chiefs of staff. At the head of this Democratic delegation was Louisa Terrell, Biden’s White House director of the office of legislative affairs.
Terrell, speaking to the audience of powerful Republican aides, laid out how she worked. She felt even in these politically polarized times compromise should be pursued. They wouldn’t agree on everything, but there were deals to be had. At the same time Terrell said, according to four sources with knowledge of this meeting, her team had a job to do and planned to do it.
Terrell’s speech illustrated how she is the tip of the spear of the Biden administration’s team as she fulfills one of the most difficult jobs in America’s deeply divided political landscape: Biden’s congressional fixer and legislative guide. Terrell is the leader of the team that takes a proposal fromShe is the person who aims to get things done and who is in charge of ushering policy proposals through the congressional maze.
