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Dear Board of Directors,

I’ve just returned from a very productive West Coast swing, including a visit to Silicon Valley to meet with partners and prospects. I was struck by the wildly different perspective on our issues and politics – but very helpful as both coasts of the country grapple to understand the middle of America.

A few important items to share from this week:

1. A Really Big Deal for Three USGLC Board Members. Congratulations to fellow board members – IRC, Sesame Workshop, and CRS – who were named this week as semi-finalists by the MacArthur Foundation in a new $100 million competition to come up with the best proposal to solve a global problem. Incredible that three of our board members were selected out of the 1,900 proposals submitted.

It’s a tribute to their ingenuity and work. Special shout-out to David Miliband and Sherrie Westin for their joint proposal from IRC/Sesame, and to Sean Callahan and Bill O’Keefe at CRS. Read the full story here<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/macarthur-foundation-competition.html>.

2. More Friends Showing Up in the Administration. Two new high-level positions at the State Department were just announced:

* Long-time USGLC consultant and friend, Brian Hook, was sworn in yesterday as the top policy advisor for Secretary of State Tillerson, running the Policy & Planning shop. This is Jake Sullivan’s old job. Brian served as our chief GOP consultant throughout the 2016 election dating back to our Africa trips and cares deeply about foreign assistance and global development. This is “huge”.

* Former USGLC board member and our friend, Bill Inglee, has been named Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and will be handling budget matters. Bill is a long-time expert in this area having served in the past as Staff Director on the House Appropriations Committee during Chairman Roger’s tenure and in senior roles at Lockheed Martin.

3. In Other Administration News:

* At STATE, Margaret Peterlin has been named Chief of Staff for Secretary Tillerson.

* As for the NSC CHAOS, too bad Vice Admiral Bob Harward turned down being the next National Security Advisor – he is a long-time USGLC NSAC member and had spoken at our Annual Conference a few years ago. He had written to me several weeks back offering to help when he heard the Administration was not positioning USAID strongly enough. General Keith Alexander, another NSAC member, is now in contention and have also seen General James Jones' name floated as well.

* As for USAID, my intel is that Martin Silverstein is out of the running. Our friend Mark Green remains a strong candidate, but nothing is certain as we saw when Elliot Abrams was up for Deputy Secretary of State.

* Interesting news on NSC GLOBALDEV STAFF – We’ve heard that Deputy National Security Advisor, Ken Juster (who will serve as the G7/8 sherpa and was supposed to join us at the board retreat), will have a much smaller staff than the Obama team. Originally, I heard he would have no one handling development, but last week I was told he is bringing on a new direct report whose portfolio will be split between development and economic issues.

4. Budget Movement. Our campaign – Leading Globally Matters Locally – is in full gear just in time with the new OMB Director Mick Mulvaney confirmed this week. Here is what to expect:

* Agencies expect guidance from OMB next week and will turn around their “skinny budgets” quickly – setting up for an early March release.

* We're working with our campaign partners in preparing responses to what could be draconian cuts from the Administration.

* Over 120 of our retired three and four-star generals and admirals have signed a letter to Congress that we organized – we'll be releasing it shortly.

* We're prepping for a major coalition-wide national mobilization the week of March 20. Mark your calendar.

Lastly, I hope you had a chance to see the annual Gates Note<https://www.gatesnotes.com/2017-Annual-Letter> – always an inspiration! – I also wanted to share Melinda’s words to the Seattle Times<http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/sell-trump-on-foreign-aid-melinda-gates-vows-to-try/> on engaging the Trump Administration: “I think what you will continue to hear Bill and I saying very vociferously, very publicly, is that less than 1 percent portion of the budget is highly effective.”

Watch for some important speeches and comments coming out of the Munich Conference this weekend with Mattis and Pence attending for the Administration – and we got promises from several members of Congress to raise the issue of resources during their dinner with Mattis and Bill Gates and in broader meetings. We’ll see if Pence meets with the CoDel.

Hope you enjoy the holiday weekend. More soon.

Best,
Liz

Liz Schrayer, USGL