Current Position: Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs (since February 2009)
Credit: Center for
American Progress
Why He Matters
Chicago lover President
Barack Obama has pledged to make cities a top priority after decades of relative White House neglect. To do that, he has appointed Derek Douglas as special assistant for urban affairs to the president.
Douglas spent the last couple of years lobbying for New York state in Washington. Before that he worked at the Center for American Progress, focusing particularly on how to cut consumers’ credit card debt. He has also worked for the NAACP and as a counselor at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers.
Now, he’ll help monitor the way federal dollars are spent in urban areas and will design comprehensive strategies for improving American cities. Douglas will sit on the White House Domestic Policy Committee and will work closely with White House Director of Urban Affairs
Adolfo Carrion, who will work out of the Office of Public Liaison.
At a Glance
Current Position: Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs (since Feb. 2009)
Career History: Washington Counsel, New York State (2007 to 2009); Associate Director of Economic Policy (2005 to 2007); Counsel, O’Melveny & Myers LLP (2002 to 2005)
Birthday: N/A
Hometown: N/A
Alma Mater: University of Michigan, B.A. (economics); Yale Law School, JD
Spouse: N/A
Religion: N/A
Office: N/A
Email N/A
Web site
Path to Power
Douglas earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, where he was an economics major. After graduating from Yale Law School, he clerked for 3rd circuit judge Timothy K. Lewis.
In 1999, he joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educa¬tional Fund as an assistant counsel in New York City. He also worked for the Brookings Institution in the economic studies program.
Douglas left the organization to work as counsel at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in 2002. He joined the liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) in 2005. At CAP, he founded the economic mobility program. He also worked as associate director of economic policy and lobbied on behalf of the organization's political action fund.
In 2007, he left CAP to join former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s (D) staff as his Washington counsel. He stayed in his job when Spitzer resigned after the New York Times revealed that he had hired several high-priced prostitutes while in office; he was replaced by Gov. David Paterson (D). Douglas tried to quickly build relationships between Republican New York congressmen and the relatively unknown Paterson. According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, Douglas quickly sent an email assuring law makers that Paterson hoped to communicate with them.
He oversaw federal policy development and lobbied on urban, economic and domestic policy issues for New York for about two years before moving to the White House.
The Issues
When Douglas worked for the Empire State in Washington, his seven-person office fought to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, to increase homeland security funding for New York and to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act and increase funding for New York schools.
Credit Cards
Douglas has long called on the government to protect credit-card users from hidden fees and mounting debt. He has challenged Congress and the president to create an incentive system that encourages credit-card companies to do the right thing. “The goal should not be to save consumers from themselves by making it impossible for them to get credit cards,” he wrote in a Washington Monthly article in 2005. “It should be to give consumers the means to manage their credit wisely, and to reset the entire system so that consumers don't have to go out of their way to avoid being fleeced.”
He believes Congress should enact the “Credit Card Users’ Bill of Rights,” which would require banks to provide consumers all the information they need in an easy-to-understand form.
Douglas has several proposals for improving Americans’ relationship with credit cards. For example, he suggests that companies link their customers’ cards to checking accounts. This would enable users to make easy monthly payments automatically. He also thinks credit-card users should be alerted when they are over their limit. Currently, most companies do not do this, instead charging exorbitant interest fees. He also suggested creating a five-star credit card rating system that would rank cards according to the “risks contained in their lending terms.” This idea was adopted by Obama in 2007, when he was running for president. The plan has been criticized by some as an inadequate curb on the most serious problems with credit lending.
Lobbying
According to Open Secrets, Douglas was a registered lobbyist for CAP in 2006.
Ben Smith of Politico notes that Douglas was a registered lobbyist in 2005. When he was working at O’Melveny and Myers, he lobbied on behalf of the Department of Transportation for safety devices.
The Network
In the White House, Douglas will work closely with
Adolfo Carrion, the White House director of urban affairs.
As a former New York lobbyist, Douglas has worked closely with several state officials. Sen.
Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has spoken highly of Douglas’ work.
