6. Department of State · Minor
Require White House coordination of all State engagement with Congress
Printed page 176 6. Department of State
“The Secretary of State and political leadership should ensure full coordination with the White House regarding congressional engagement on any State Department responsibility.”
What has happened
- Not started
Searched; nothing found. No directive requiring the Department to clear congressional engagement with the White House has been published. Cluster A negative search in the chapter log: no Federal Register document, no whitehouse.gov presidential action, nothing in the Department's 2,313 press releases for 2025-2026, and nothing in the Foreign Affairs Manual chapters that govern legislative affairs. The Bureau of Legislative Affairs, the Office of House Affairs, the Office of Senate Affairs and the Capitol Hill Liaison Office all still appear in the Department's own bureau-and-office index, and no clearance requirement is attached to them in any allowlisted record.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Category note: an internal management practice. A clearance rule of this kind would normally live in a cable or in 2 FAM/1 FAM; neither carries one. The not started stamp records the completed negative search.
- What would settle it: an unclassified Department notice or a FAM revision requiring White House clearance of congressional contacts.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- State Department congressional engagement
- ID
- 477