Senators wanted Eric Ueland to be their parliamentarian after he wowed them with his encyclopedic knowledge of Senate rules. But President Trump’s new legislative liaison passed on the umpire job, setting instead a course for one of the hardest and highest profile positions in D.C.
Former colleagues say there’s no one better to sell Trump’s agenda in a sharply divided Congress, describing Ueland’s familiar face and decades studying and greasing legislative gears as ideal for working with House Democrats hostile to Trump.
Ueland, now a 53-year-old father of three, arrived on Capitol Hill 30 years ago and worked 23 years for Senate Republicans, with a six-year break in private practice.
“He was too smart to get tied down in the parliamentarian role,” said former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who floated the opportunity to Ueland.
Lott said Ueland’s long-term reputation for practicality and collegiality are powerful assets.
“When we were there, times were different,” said Lott, who left the Senate in 2007. “In those days, particularly in the ’90s, we worked across the aisle a great deal.”
“Eric knows the Democratic senators very well. He knows their staffs,” Lott added.
Ueland’s former boss Don Nickles, Republican whip and Senate Budget Committee chairman in the early 2000s, said Ueland would be familiar to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., both first elected in the ’80s.
“Both sides know his word is good as gold. That would include Pelosi, who was in the House at that time … and Hoyer,” said Nickles, R-Okla. “We negotiated with them successfully in the ’90s on welfare reform and tax reform.”
Nickles, who employed Ueland as chief of staff, said Ueland played a key role in post-9/11 legislation to aid attack victims and airlines. From 2003 to 2007, he worked as chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
“[Ueland] has a memory that’s phenomenal; his knowledge of the institution is second to none,” Nickles said. “He’s smart enough to find what common denominators are there, to create a sweet spot.”
Nickles added that it’s hard to dislike Ueland and that “he’s a pleasure to work with. I think Republicans and Democrats will say that.”
Ueland took his first job in the Washington area in 1988, joining the American Spectator magazine as an entry-level business associate after graduating from the University of San Francisco.
Founder and longtime editor Emmett Tyrrell recalls Ueland as a success, emerging as a right-hand man to the Spectator’s publisher before leaving in 1989 for a job in the Senate. The magazine regularly hires young staff with an aim to propel them into other roles in Washington.
“He’s very, very prudent. That’s the one mark I’ve carried with him all the years,” said Tyrrell, whose wife worked with Ueland last year during his brief stint at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a government foreign aid agency. It was his final job before joining the State Department, then transferring to the White House Domestic Policy Council in April.
Ueland was unavailable for comment, but in a statement announcing his selection, White House spokesman Judd Deere said he “will work to add to the many legislative victories the President has already achieved, including tax cuts, the First Step Act, and rebuilding of our great military.”
Ueland won’t find an easy path forward as Democrats clamor for impeaching Trump. His own nomination to be under secretary of state for management was yanked last year after Democrats slow-walked the confirmation process.
Trump’s legislative relations won’t fall entirely on Ueland despite his title.
With many fights ahead on must-pass spending legislation, Ueland will work closely with Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney, also Trump’s acting chief of staff, is a former South Carolina congressman and frequent Hill visitor.
Ueland replaces Shahira Knight, who got the job after building a reputation as a details-oriented force behind Trump’s 2017 tax cut legislation. Her predecessor, Marc Short, returned to the administration this year as a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence.
