Name: Manisha Singh
Hometown: Lake Alfred, Fla.
Position: Chief counsel and senior policy adviser, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska
Age: 45
Alma Mater: University of Miami, University of Florida Law School, American University
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Washington Examiner: You were born in India and moved to Florida as a child. What brought you to Capitol Hill?
Singh: When I was in high school, my congressman at the time, he had a program called the Congressional Classroom, and one high school junior from each high school in his district was selected to travel to Washington as part of this program, and I was fortunate enough to be selected from my school. And that was my first exposure to Capitol Hill. We toured the Capitol and learned what members of Congress do, and ever since then I was fascinated with public policy. And I always wanted to try and make a difference. As an immigrant, I’ve always been grateful for everything this country has offered me.
I lived in Philadelphia for a while. I was practicing law in D.C., and then I moved to Philly to work at a Pennsylvania-based law firm. Their international practice was in Philadelphia, and then I moved back to D.C. … By the time I was a senior associate at the law firm, I thought, “Well, I have enough exposure and experience to translate this now to the policy world,” so that’s when I decided to move to the Hill. My first exposure on the Senate side on the Foreign Relations Committee working for Sen. [Richard] Lugar, [R-Ind.]
Washington Examiner: And after that stint you ended up at the State Department?
Singh: Yes. It was at the end of the Bush administration for a couple years. Of course, you know, political jobs end, so, I was the deputy assistant secretary of state in the economic bureau.
Washington Examiner: Did you work for Sen. Sullivan at the State Department?
Singh: That’s my connection to him. He was the assistant secretary in the economic bureau. … I was one of his deputies.
Washington Examiner: What did your job at the State Department entail?
The [deputy assistant secretary] is where the management happens. I had four offices that I supervised, about 70 people — it was the largest section within the economic bureau, [and] it was on trade policy. So, I handled trade, intellectual property issues, [World Trade Organization] issues, all of that stuff. … I was a manager of foreign service, civil service personnel — all the challenges of management in a big bureaucracy — and I also traveled a lot, of course, doing work for basically promoting the State Department’s mission. At the time, we were looking into trade agreements and how trade agreements could better function for American businesses. I remember that was always the key when we looked at these agreements. How is this going to benefit U.S. companies, their ability to export? So the mission was to move this policy forward, including trade as a tool for the American economic agenda.
Washington Examiner: Are you still doing a lot of that with Sen. Sullivan, or has your portfolio shifted?
Singh: I still handle trade policy, but I have a broader foreign policy component. For instance, I advised him on the Iran nuclear deal, some of the bigger picture for everything going on in Syria … and I’m also the legal adviser in the office.
Washington Examiner: So what’s a day like for you, assuming the Senate is in session?
Singh: I always try to read newspapers … just making sure that you’re on top of the news, on top of what’s going on, I think, is an essential way to start the day, because then when things happen, you’re not blindsided. When something comes up, you know what you have to have an opinion on. In my current position, [it’s about] what Sen. Sullivan should be ready to comment on, what he needs to put statements out on. And I focus on the news generally, broadly, of course — the Comey thing happening last week, all of us wanting to be informed and give him an informed opinion of what we thought was happening — but in my issue area specifically as well. The foreign policy news, the trade policy news. And what’s going on back in the state of Alaska, as well, of course. It’s like any office where you have your internal meetings … writing memos and papers, most of which are for him, but some are for other colleagues. Today, I was looking for co-sponsors for a piece of legislation of his. [And there’s] strategy and coordination — here’s a policy priority we need to move forward; how do I do that? And that’s generating support from other offices, talking to outside groups — “how does this affect you?” That’s one of the things in every government position I’ve had I think I’ve tried to be aware of. Sometimes government officials might think, “Well, this is a decision we’re making,” and not understand the real-life consequences, whether it’s a trade agreement, whether it’s tax legislation. Right now, of course, the big example is healthcare … you’re not just passing legislation, you’re implementing policies and doing things that are going to have a real impact on the outside world.
Washington Examiner: What are some of the unique aspects of thinking through Sen. Sullivan’s role as a representative of Alaska with his foreign policy interests and role as a senator working on national policy?
Singh: You do have to look at first, what’s going on in Alaska? Any national decisions or things that you take a look at, you look at the impact on Alaska. For instance, healthcare, the effects are different on Alaska, and that may not be necessarily our geographic location, but there are issue sets. When you look at things like energy, there’s a very different component of how does national energy policy affect a state like Alaska, which has energy resources. In general, different states have different foreign policy issues that people become interested in depending on what’s happening in the world at the time. Alaska, because of it’s geostrategic position in the Pacific Ocean, when something’s happening with China or something’s happening with Russia, there really is a geographic impact in its proximity to the situation. So the effects on Alaska can be thought of as more acute than the rest of the United States … of course, Alaska [also] has a significant military presence there.
Washington Examiner: Any hobbies, when you’re not working on all that?
Singh: One of the things I like about D.C. is, it’s very easy to be social. There’s always something interesting going on — there’s always a think tank that has a guest speaker that I find interesting. So I like the social, quasi-professional aspect of D.C. I’m becoming a better cook, over the years. A lot of my work, of course, has involved travel — a lot of working at the State Department and the Foreign Relations Committee. So it’s work travel, but it’s a lifestyle sort of thing. For me, work travel never felt like work.
