Neera Tanden tells Oversight Committee she followed White House autopen and decision-memo protocols, says Biden ‘was in charge’

Neera Tanden, who served in the Biden White House as senior adviser, staff secretary and director of the Domestic Policy Council, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during a transcribed interview that she oversaw the assembly and review of decision memos and decision cards that the president signed or initialed and that the autopen was applied by the White House clerk’s office under a long‑standing protocol.

Tanden described the staff‑secretary role as responsible for collecting and editing decision memos, synthesizing them onto decision cards, and ensuring the president’s signed or initialed decisions were recorded. "He was in charge," she said of President Biden when asked whether she had any reason to question who was making decisions. She told the committee that, where the president approved an action and initialed the card and the memo, that constituted the authorization she would treat as sufficient for using the autopen in ordinary, lower‑profile executive actions and correspondence.

The committee pressed Tanden about how the autopen was used and who operated it. She said David Kalbaugh, the White House clerk, and his career staff physically controlled the autopen device and that her office (and her deputy) were authorized to request use of the autopen for executive actions and correspondence under the procedures she inherited from earlier administrations. She described two broad categories that commonly used autopen: high‑volume items…