Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producer Ben Johansen Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Lauren| Email Myah|Email Lawrence PROGRAMMING NOTE: West Wing Playbook will be off this Monday for Indigenous Peoples Day but we'll be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. JEFF ZIENTS is trying to build a reputation for himself in the White House as an accessible chief of staff who puts a premium on developing relationships with the people he manages. He’s hosted Friday happy hours on his office patio. He makes bagel Wednesday a thing. And as West Wing Playbook wrote earlier this year, he holds town halls regularly for White House staffers for people across departments to get face time with senior-level leaders and to ask questions. But those opportunities have largely been for the staffers who work on the White House campus. That can leave the hundreds of other JOE BIDEN political appointees who fill out federal agencies feeling second fiddle to their peers stationed in the White House. So Zients has set out to make sure they feel just as valued, and just as much a part of the team as people at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In recent weeks, he has made the rounds to federal agencies, hosting scaled-down versions of his White House town halls. He’s visited the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. On Thursday, he called on the CHIPS office at the Department of Commerce, where staff are working to implement the CHIPS and Science Act’s nearly $53 billion investment in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. This particular visit came together after Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO reached out to Zients, said MIKE SCHMIDT, director of the CHIPS Program office. Raimondo had just attended a recent briefing with the CHIPS team and invited Zients to meet the 140-person operation they’ve built since last year. “It was very clear as it came together that it was a huge priority for him to make it happen. We weren’t given dates like three months away, which is kind of what I expected when the White House chief of staff agrees to do something with you,” Schmidt said. “They were like, ‘Oh, you know, how about the week after next?’” A couple weeks after the invitation was made, Zients left the White House grounds on foot to make the less than half-mile trek to Commerce. The venue of his chat, the Commerce library, was described as Zients-esque, with a similar set-up to his office at the White House — no desk, but a large table for people to sit around and gather. There weren’t enough seats for the group of more than 100 staff, so others stood close behind. Zients, who was joined by Raimondo and Schmidt, gave brief remarks at the top about his own experience in government, including his move from private to public sector under the Obama administration. He talked about team building, and the culture he likes to create in the workplace, while also taking the opportunity to discuss his views of the impact of the CHIPS program. He didn’t bring bagels (sad). But he did bring an “approachable” demeanor, Schmidt said. Zients hung around for an hour while staff asked questions on everything from how he sees the role of CHIPS in the president’s agenda to career advice for those new to government. He had a few things to say on that one: Keep a low ego and get work done. “Day to day, we are in the grind of the work,” Schmidt said. “And so to get to zoom out and spend some time with the White House chief of staff and recognize from a big picture perspective — the importance of what we’re doing — it’s totally invaluable for us.” MESSAGE US — Are you PHILIP KIM, senior adviser for public engagement? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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