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Relationship with EPA career staff
Q: How did you go about establishing a relationship with EPA career staff, coming from a non-governmental organization?
MR. REILLY: When I went to (Assistant Administrator for Air) Bill Rosenberg's farewell, I can recall, I believe it was Rob Brenner of the air staff who made a remark to me to the effect that you never made any distinction in your time between the political and the career people at the Agency. You took both of them into your confidence and all felt a part of the team. I was very pleased to hear him say that because that's, in fact, what I tried to do. I can recall one occasion when career staff kept me from doing something dumb when I became angry at the White House and considered acknowledging that in testimony, and an Air staff member advised, "No, not before Congress. There are other ways to do that if you decide it's a good idea."
I remember thinking later, one doesn't rely on career staff for that kind of advice, but they gave it to me. And of course it was correct. I felt they were quite protective of me and loyal to me. I certainly tried to be both to them. They gave good value consistently. They were very dedicated, very committed. I must say, they certainly belie the stereotype that much of the country has of the Washington bureaucrat. They worked very long hours and brought to their task a degree of sophistication about the interplay of politics, economics, science and health that made working with them intellectually very stimulating.
Apart from all of the power we had, apart from whatever impact we may have had on history in my time, the experience itself of working with those people, those men and women, is one that was consistently exhilarating for me. As far as my interaction with them, I can recall early on having 25 or 30 troop into my office for a briefing and wondering whether this was cost-effective. In the private sector, the meter would be running, of course, and it would be pretty hard to justify that. I later came to conclude that it both was rewarding to them to see the Administrator finally get the issue on which they might have spent several years of their lives and also was an extremely effective way of communicating within the Agency. It multiplied the people who heard the message directly and could repeat it. So, I used those meetings - often asking questions, the answers to which I knew, and probably more often asking questions, the answers to which I didn't have a clue.
I also used to enjoy sometimes some of the old crocodiles there who had been around a while and knew all the answers watch me in a briefing just gradually come to some level of understanding so that I could ask a certain question and I'd almost see in their eyes, "Oh good, he's reached the primary level of comprehension here, so we'll reward him with an answer." We had a good, humorous, I think, congenial relationship. I came to respect them a great deal. I think they understood that and appreciated it.
Their largest deficiency was the result of their beleaguered history, which had resulted in limiting their openness and involvement with much of the outside world, with the most innovative segments of the business community, and with other countries. I tried to broaden their horizons, and open them up a bit.