Chris Lu: Taking Nothing for Granted

By Dottie Tiejun Li

Most boys at age ten are playing with toys of some sort, building fun things or playing sports. Chris Lu watched a debate between President Gerald Ford and his challenger, Governor Jimmy Carter, when he was ten. Fast forward 32 years, the younger son of Chinese immigrants Eileen and Chien-Yang Lu, and Chris Lu works as Assistant to the President of the United States and Cabinet Secretary.

The older Lu instilled and nurtured an interest in politics in his son. “He was an engineer by training, but in his heart, he was a history buff and a political science buff and I think that’s where I got my interest,” Chris Lu says about his father. After the Lu family moved from New Jersey to Rockville, Maryland when Chris was 8, father took son to meet his Congressman. The two read biographies of politicians and watched the evening news together. In the late 1980s, Lu was at law school where he became friends with a student named with Barack Obama. He worked as a law clerk, a litigation attorney, a Capitol Hill staffer, and as legislative director for then-Senator Obama. Then, history was made.

Chris Lu was tapped by President-Elect Obama to head his transition team in 2008.  Lu quietly rented a small office in D.C. and secretly met with people who had worked on previous Democratic presidential transitions. The planning produced policy options on a wide range of topics, compiled names and began vetting potential political appointees for top jobs, arranged over 100 security clearances, and managed the logistics for expanding the operations after Election Day. It’s as if he were a conductor orchestrating a piece of very complicated music.

Chris Lu’s Dad has passed away, but his mother lives in Silver Spring. He has one older brother who’s also a lawyer. He lives in Virginia with his wife, Katie Thomson.

Shortly before the presidential election, Dottie Li joined Chris Lu at the White House for a conversation.

AF: How did you get here?

CL: In 2004 I was asked to join the staff of my old friend, then-Senator Obama. I have been with him for the last eight years now. With the exception of a handful of people, I’ve known him longer than anyone here. It is a wonderful experience, first with a freshman Senator and now the president of the United States.

AF: What’s this experience been like with him?

CL: He’s my friend. He and I go back a long time. I always tell people that he’s as kind and thoughtful and as an intelligent a person in private and as he seems publically. It’s been a thrill to get to work for the president who also happens to be a friend. It’s especially nice, being a son of immigrants.

AF: Day to day, working at the White House as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary. What’s a typical day for you? Is there ever a “typical” day?

CL: I think you hit the nail on the head. I love my job because there’s no typical day. My job is to be the president’s liaison to his cabinet. Also, to represent the cabinet back to the President and other White House staff. On a day to day basis, it’s basically solving problems, it’s making sure that the White House understands what the agencies are doing and the agencies understand what the White House is doing. It’s a coordinating function. It’s to ensure that the Obama Administration speaks with one voice.

It’s easier said than done on many days because it’s a big federal government and there’s a lot going on. It’s a fun job because not only I get to work with my White House colleagues, but I also get a chance to work with our great cabinet members. It’s just a thrill to work with people whom I admired growing up. For example, I would not have had the career in politics but for ground breakers like Gary Locke, Norm Mineta, and Mike Honda and people like that. To get a chance to work with now-Ambassador Locke, I consider to be a great joy of this job.

AF: You have another hat that you wear. You’re the Co-Chair of White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI).

CL: It’s been a great joy, not only traveling around the country and meeting with Asian Americans, but talking to them about the issues that affect them. How they think the federal government can better serve them. But also it’s a chance to talk and brag a little bit about what the administration has done for AAs, whether it’s two million Asian Americans who didn’t have health insurance and now have insurance, whether it’s the tax break we provided 1.5 million small businesses, whether it’s 300,000 Asian American students whose interest rates were about to go up, and this president lowered them. So, it’s important to note that the President made it clear to us that he didn’t want anyone to be invisible to the federal government.

One of the things I’m proud of is that this Initiative has gone to groups that previously had not been touched by the federal government. Following the oil spill in 2010, we sent a lot of folks to the Gulf coast. Some of the people most affected by the oil spill are fishermen and shrimpers who were originally from South East Asia. Because of language barriers, they weren’t able to access a lot of the federal resources available to them. What we’ve been doing a big push is to talk to recent immigrants about some of the programs that would help them integrated and become citizens. We started a new initiative to aid nail salon workers who are predominately Asian American women who work in very difficult conditions. These are the groups that federal government doesn’t typically reach. And with the president’s support and leadership, we’re now reaching out to these groups. We’re talking to businessmen, students, recent immigrants, white collar, blue collar, we talk to everyone.

AF: You are lending your support to Asian American Government Executive Network (AAGEN). How did you get involved with AAGEN?

CL: One of the things that the president established in the executive order in the Initiative is to look at how we can better advance AAPIs in the federal workforce. This is personal for me, as my father was a career civil servant. My first job was at a federal agency, a summer job after I graduated from high school. I’ve always been around federal government.

One of the things we consistently heard is that Asian American civil servants have a difficult time breaking into the Senior Executive Service (SES). This AAGEN program is really a wonderful partnership between an outside organization and the government to pick promising and upcoming Asian American federal workers to give them the training, the mentoring, so they can make the leap to SES rank. It’s a wonderful example of an issue that a lot of people in the community talked about.

AF: How does one get a job like yours?

CL: (laughs) It’s probably some hard work and a lot of good fortune. I’ve also been blessed with some wonderful mentors during my career who watch over me. Every day I walk into the White House, I feel fortunate that I have the job that I have. Not only is there the chance to work with wonderful people in this administration, including the president, but there’s a chance to really do public service. And I’m also keenly aware that throughout history there have not been a lot of people like me who’ve worked at the White House. That makes it a lot more special.

I’m where I am because other people have blazed the trail for me. One of the great things of having this job is working with people like Gary Locke, Norm Mineta. People forget that before this president took over, there’ had only been only two Asian American cabinet members in history, in the 236-year history of America, and this president appointed 3, 4 and 5. At the beginning of this Administration, when all 3 of them were at the cabinet meeting, that’s the most in history. Not only my hiring, but a lot of other people’s hiring reflects this president’s commitment to having a government that looks like the country.

AF: You talked about good luck and hard work that got you here. Let’s focus on hard work. What’s that one thing you can impart to the young people out there? What’s the one thing that got you here today?

CL: “Never take anything for granted.” I have been blessed with a wonderful upbringing. I have gone to some of the best schools in the country. But I never take for granted what any of that means. I’ve always tried to work hard. I’ve always tried to represent myself well. I’ve always tried to represent my employers well. I have no expectation that anything is due to me.

Every single day I come to this office, I work as hard as when I first started here on day one. I talk to the White House interns and tell them Washington is full of leaders in the government who started out in the mail room. As somebody who has supervised people, you can actually see from very early on, people who are going to be superstars because they always work. And they have a sense of ownership. Whether you’re making photocopies, whether you’re checking mail, answering phone calls, those people treat that as the most important thing they can do. If you treat your job as the most important thing you have, you are going to do well.

AF: When do you start your day?

CL: I start my day incredibly early. I am a runner as well. I do my running in the morning. I’m up at 4:45 am. Read, scan the papers, then work out, and I’m basically at my desk by 7:30 pm.

AF: When do you end your day?

CL: When you get up that early, you have to go to sleep early. You know the thing about the White House, the hours are long. You’re always on call. Vacation, weekends, you could be at the movie, at dinner, but you’re on call. Things happen and you have to deal with them. The unpredictability is the most difficult thing about this job.

AF: Would you say this is one aspect of your job that don’t like as much?

CL: I wouldn’t say it that way. But you understand why people don’t do this type of job for a long period of time. It has the feel of dog years. You’ve worked 4 years at White House, that’s a long time. You don’t get a lot of breaks around here. I always joked about the first 100 days of this administration: I remember every single one of those first 100 days. And that’s just the way it is.

Look, I’m not complaining. It’s an honor to work here every day. It’s an honor to work for this president. Given the problems we face in this country, whether it’s health care, the economy, foreign policy challenges, you know if there’s a serious problem the White House gets involved in it. It’s just its nature. It’s a great privilege and honor to do that. You don’t really want people who work 9-to-5 at the White House. The world doesn’t function 9-to-5. There’re things that happen all the time.

Part of why I run in the morning, as I advise people who go down this career path, is that you need to come up with something else other than work. You need to have outside interests because work can become all consuming.

I just finished my 26^th marathon this weekend (Oct. 20^th) (Editor’s note: as of press time in early December, Lu ran his 27^th.) and I had three other events. I love running. I have friends I run with, some from politics, some not. Some are Republicans, some not. If you decide not to create outside interests, then you get consumed by the job.

AF: Do you run on treadmills, out doors?

CL: Both. Sometimes, an hour a day you get to clear your head a little bit.

AF: You’ve talked about the administration’s accomplishments. You meet small business people. Are there any stories that stand out to you as you travel the country?

CL: There’re a lot of stories. There are people who didn’t have health care and now they do, because of the president. It’s students who are in college worried about their future, but also optimistic about what lies ahead of them. It’s kids who go to community colleges; 40 percent of Asian Americans go to community colleges. It’s small business owners who want to grow their businesses. I’ve seen a resurgence of their businesses in the last couple of years. It’s also new immigrants. They come to this country. They talk to you through a translator. You hear about their hopes and dreams. My parents came as immigrants. You hear lots people talk about their dreams. And that’s one of the greatest things about traveling.

That one reason the President wants us to get on the road. In Washington, we know we don’t have a monopoly on good ideas. We want to hear from people who can tell us what’s working well, what’s not, and what we should concentrate on. Also it’s a chance for us to brag a little about the things we’ve done. I think people in the Asian American community know the good things that occurred in the last couple of years that the president has done. But some may have a hard time putting their fingers on it. Just reminding them a little bit about these things is helpful.

I met with the coalition of the nail salon workers. This is not an issue I knew much about. And they came and they did a presentation for me. I was moved by the work conditions with the chemicals they were using. They didn’t even know the hazards of the chemicals and then they started to have health conditions. Not something I knew a lot about. When I go out to meet with veterans, they are coming back to talk about their struggles.

AF: You’re wearing two hats. One is Cabinet Secretary, the other WHIAPI. How do you balance it all?

CL: I always joke one is my day job, the Cabinet affairs job. WHIAAPI is my night and weekend job. They run into each other all the time. Fortunately I have a wonderful staff at the White House that works for me at Cabinet Affairs. I have a wonderful staff that works out of Department of Education at WHIAAPI.

AF: What else would you like to say to Asian Fortune readers?

CL: I believe this president has done more for the Asian American community than any other president. We appointed more Asian Americans to more important positions than any previous presidents. We talked about the cabinet. We more than doubled the number of federal judges.

At the end of the day, though, it’s not just personnel. It’s policy. Diversity in itself doesn’t mean anything unless the policy is backing it up. Whether it’s the 2 million AAPIs who now have health insurance because of the president, or the 2.5 million of AAPIs getting free preventive health care because of the Affordable Care Act, or the 100,000 Asian American young people under the age of 26 who can now stay under their parents’ insurance, these are important.

One of the things I always tell the business community is that this president has made 18 tax cuts for small business. There are 1.5 million AAPI small businesses in the country. I’m proud of the record this administration has accomplished these four years. He understands this community. He’s appointed people who understand this community. The president keenly understands the needs of our community, understands our successes and failures.

I’m sure you’ve seen it, the president’s speech in May at APAICS (Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies). It was a wonderful speech. He truly understands there are two communities. There is one community that’s prospering, and one that’s not doing so well. We try to draw a policy that is helping everyone in the community. That’s why we are constantly on the road. The White House Initiative, I think, has taken us to 50 different cities. We’re going to talk to everyone. My travel schedule this last year has been incredible. I like talking to people about what this president has done. And I’m proud to represent him. I love chairing the White House Initiative. And not only hearing from people. People are not shy in telling me what the federal government should do and I’m not shy about what the president has done. And that’s one of the fun things about getting outside of the Beltway.

AF: Thank you so much for your time, and for sharing your stories with Asian Fortune’s readers.