Albright, Leach to represent Obama at summit

The Obama transition office Wednesday unveiled the leaders of their agency review team, which will examine the inner workings of over 100 government offices and advise President-elect Barack Obama on what he should change or keep the same.

The transition office also announced that Mr. Obama will be represented at the global economic summit this weekend by former Clinton administration Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and by former Republican congressman Jim Leach, of Iowa.

The agency review will be led by three people: Melody Barnes, a senior domestic policy adviser to the Obama campaign who previously worked for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; Lisa Brown, executive director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and a one time legal adviser to former Vice President Al Gore; and Don Gips, who worked under Mr. Gore at the White House as his chief domestic policy adviser.

The teams will begin work this week, the Obama transition office said, and will “provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisers with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration.”

They will also “ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in,” a statement from the transition office said.

Mr. Obama himself was in Chicago Wednesday and had no public appearances. After his usual morning workout, he spent much of the day at his hometown transition offices.

It was also announced that Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill will visit Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne at the Naval Observatory in Washington, where the vice president lives while in office.

In addition to announcing the agency review co-chairs, the Obama transition office released a slew of names who will take part in the examination over the next nine weeks.

In particular, they announced the two-person teams that will oversee the transition into the Defense Department, State Department, and Treasury Department.

At the Pentagon, Michelle Flournoy, a former high-ranking Pentagon official under President Clinton who helped start a new think tank in Washington last year, and John P. White, a deputy secretary of defense under Clinton, will manage the review.

At State, Thomas Donilon, a former assistant secretary of state under Clinton and Wendy Sherman, a close adviser of Ms. Albright during her time as secretary of state, will head up the review.

And at Treasury, investment banker Josh Gotbaum, who worked at the Pentagon, Treasury and White House budget office for Mr. Clinton, and Michael Warren, a former executive director of the White House National Economic Council, are charge of the transition.

The Obama team also announced a 10-person agency review working group, which they said will will “manage and review the Teams’ work and coordinate with other transition teams, including those handling personnel, policy and the budget.”

Obama transition leader John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff under Mr. Clinton, said review team members “will be in the agencies as early as [Monday].”

At the economic summit with leaders from 18 other countries this Saturday, Ms. Albright and Mr. Leach will be available for meetings with heads of state or their representatives on the sidelines of the economic summit Saturday.

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