Gramm rapidly scaled the agency ranks to become its administrator for
Information and Regulatory Affairs. In 1986 she served as OBM's executive
director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief. Then-Vice
President Bush chaired the task force and conferred daily with Gramm.
"He is very smart and has a very good memory," Gramm says of Bush.
"I would brief him on the regulatory issues, which were very complex, and he
would remember everything."
During the Bush administration, a distraught Cabinet member once
shuffled into Gramm's CFTC office. He had been reprimanded by Bush for
unintentionally contradicting the President's policy on a commodity trading
issue. He had searched in vain for a speech or memo that stated Bush's policy
and as a last resort had come to see Gramm.
"I told the Secretary," Gramm says, "'No, the President never made a
speech on the issue, but he made a policy decision on it during a meeting
with me back when he was the Vice President.' That shows how good his
memory was."
By the late 1980s Gramm had developed a sterling reputation at the
White House. When the CFTC chair opened in 1988, then-President Reagan
offered her the position.
[CONTINUED BELOW]
Phil, meanwhile, had won a seat in the U.S. Senate, making the couple
one of Washington's most powerful husband-wife teams.
But that had its drawbacks. Neither had the time to support the other's
career. "Phil is very cognizant of the fact that we're very busy," Gramm says.
"When election time comes around Phil handles campaigning to his
constituents, and takes the pressure off me."
At the end of long workdays, and numerous business trips, the Gramms
reserve time to raise their kids, Marshall and Jeff. Both are now in college.
They were in high school when Gramm first assumed her CFTC post.
"My jobs in Washington really meant that I had to juggle and set
priorities, especially when I was working with the White House," she says.
"Those people work long hours. I always had to remember my priorities."
If deadlines demanded that Gramm work on a Saturday, she would
bring her kids to the office and treat them to lunch in the White House dining
room. There they would watch for the famous and powerful who prowled
the adjoining rooms and hallways.
The Gramms typically stayed home evenings with the kids instead of
haunting the endless round of parties and dinners that drive the Washington
social circuit. The evening soirees, which seem to ooze glitter and glamour,
actually function as the backdrop for political networking. But the Gramms
chose to sacrifice moonlight flesh-pressing for a solid family.
"Whenever you make choices, you have to make trade-offs," she says.
"By working, I choose not to stay home with the kids. But I make up for that
by not going out at night. Sure, there were things that I missed in my kids'
development because I work, but that's a dilemma all working women face."
"The Gramms typically stayed home evenings with the kids instead of haunting the endless round of parties and dinners that drive the Washington social circuit."
