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Susan Rice to Step Down as Biden’s Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice to Step Down as Biden’s Domestic Policy Adviser
(about 5 hours later)
Susan Rice, President Biden’s domestic policy adviser, will step down next month after overseeing some of the administration’s most polarizing issues, including gun control, student loan relief and immigration, the White House announced on Monday. WASHINGTON — Susan Rice, President Biden’s domestic policy adviser, will step down next month after overseeing some of the administration’s most polarizing issues, including immigration, gun control and student loan relief, the White House announced on Monday.
“As the only person to serve as both national security adviser and domestic policy adviser, Susan’s record of public service makes history,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “But what sets her apart as a leader and colleague is the seriousness with which she takes her role and the urgency and tenacity she brings, her bias towards action and results, and the integrity, humility and humor with which she does this work.” Ms. Rice, who previously served as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser and U.N. ambassador, is leaving as the White House faces pressure over illegal crossings at the southern border and as the Biden administration prepares to lift a Trump-era public health order that allowed border agents to expel migrants.
The news of Ms. Rice’s departure was reported first by NBC News. Her last day on the job will be May 26.
During more than two years in office, she worked on Mr. Biden’s student loan cancellation plan, a police reform executive order and a policy to cap the price of insulin at $35. She also worked on a plan to pardon thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession and advance Mr. Biden’s racial equity agenda. Ms. Rice’s tenure has been marked by legislative achievements like capping the price of insulin, expanding health care and passing bipartisan gun reform. But she also drew criticism for the administration’s approach to immigration and other divisive issues.
Ms. Rice will step down on May 26, as the Biden administration is expected to lift a Trump-era public health rule that has empowered it to expel thousands of migrants. The New York Times reported last week that Ms. Rice’s team was warned in 2021 that migrant children were working alongside their sponsors, a sign of human trafficking, and did not take sufficient action, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York Times reported last week that Ms. Rice’s team was repeatedly shown evidence of a growing migrant child labor crisis, including a 2021 memo in which staff members warned of increasing indications of human trafficking, according to people familiar with the matter.
The White House has disputed that Ms. Rice saw that warning. “We were never informed of any kind of systematic problem with child labor or migrant child labor,” Ms. Rice said in an interview after her departure was announced. “I never saw the memo.”
Ms. Rice, a foreign policy heavyweight, was a surprise choice for domestic policy adviser; she had been rumored to be on the short list to be Mr. Biden’s running mate in 2020 and has the kind of résumé that could have put her in the running for secretary of state. Asked if numerous Labor Department news releases warning of incidents of child labor did not show a systematic problem, Ms. Rice said she “was never shown nor did I have any reason to be shown Department of Labor press releases.”
The Domestic Policy Council had long been seen as the little sibling to the National Security Council. Ms. Rice said she had always planned to serve for two years.
Ms. Rice too was taken aback when she got the call. “It’s going to be about two and a half and I figured if it’s going to be two and a half, let it be time for me to enjoy my summer and be with my family and travel a bit,” she said.
“She was like, ‘You know I’m not a domestic policy expert,’” said Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff who discussed the position with Ms. Rice during the transition. “I said: ‘No, I know that Susan, but I’ve seen you work in the White House and I know you can handle hard things and get things done and bring people together and get answers churned out. That’s what the president’s going to need.’” Mr. Biden surprised many when he tapped Ms. Rice to lead the Domestic Policy Council, smaller and lesser known than the National Security Council. She was on the short list to be his running mate in 2020 and has the kind of résumé that could have put her in contention for secretary of state.
A former varsity athlete raised in the elite schools of Washington, D.C., Ms. Rice would rise from the Clinton administration to become President Barack Obama’s United Nations ambassador before being tapped as his national security adviser. But she had been a target of Republican attacks over her role in responding to the 2012 terrorist attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans dead. The controversy made it unlikely that she could assume a role requiring congressional confirmation.
She became a favorite target of Republicans after she made the rounds on news shows in response to the 2012 terrorist attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans dead. The relentless attacks made it unlikely that she could take on a higher role that required congressional confirmation. Ms. Rice was surprised when she got the nod to be Mr. Biden’s top domestic policy official, said Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff, who called her during the transition to deliver the news.
Mr. Biden and Ms. Rice have long been close but became even closer when she was the national security adviser in the Obama administration, with an office so near the vice president’s that they shared a bathroom. Ms. Rice has said that Mr. Biden was her favorite “unannounced” visitor to her office during those days. “She was like, ‘You know I’m not a domestic policy expert,’” Mr. Klain said. “I said: ‘No, I know that, Susan, but I’ve seen you work in the White House and I know you can handle hard things and get things done.”
Now, the familiarity between the two is obvious to others in the Oval Office. Mr. Biden praised Ms. Rice’s work on Monday.
Ms. Rice has been one of the senior officials who was granted the ability to drop in on Mr. Biden without the chief of staff present, Mr. Klain said. She does visit him unannounced often, but the two meet formally multiple times a week. “As the only person to serve as both national security adviser and domestic policy adviser, Susan’s record of public service makes history,” he said in a statement.
The news of Ms. Rice’s departure was first reported by NBC News.
Ms. Rice said one regret was not passing everything in Mr. Biden’s climate and social spending package, including investments in child care and home health aides. She said she was proud of a variety of issues, including addressing mental health: “If we don’t address that adequately, we’re going to have really fundamental problems.”
Multiple officials recalled when Ms. Rice immersed herself in negotiations with law enforcement unions over a police reform executive order after an early draft leaked in January 2022, putting the endorsement of police unions at risk. She made clear she would not budge on mentioning the racial disparities in police killings, multiple officials said. Police unions eventually signed off, pleased that the administration had changed language in a section about the use of lethal force.
Ms. Rice has known Mr. Biden for years; when she was Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, her office was so close to the vice president’s that they shared a bathroom. She has said Mr. Biden was her favorite “unannounced” visitor to her office during those days.
Ms. Rice has taken heat for the administration’s approach to the border, which Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized. Recently, Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, accused her of being behind restrictive enforcement measures that he said had made Mr. Biden the “asylum denier in chief.”
“While the president is of course responsible for his own policies, Ms. Rice’s tenure was marked by one bad White House decision after another on immigrants’ rights and human rights,” said Pablo Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, an immigration rights advocacy organization.
Ms. Rice said on Monday that the immigration issue could not be addressed “purely through enforcement.”
“We have an obligation to enforce our laws,” she said, “but at the same time we have an obligation to make it possible for people with legitimate protection needs and asylum claims to be heard and to have their cases adjudicated.”