Memos to the President · Episode 33
A Conversation with Mike Kuiken
On SCSP’s Memos to the President, recorded at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, Ylli Bajraktari talks with Mike Kuiken about more than two decades in the U.S. Senate: from staff assistant to Senator Carl Levin, to the Senate Armed Services Committee, to national security adviser to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
In this conversation
- 0:00Career beginningsCold open and introduction: more than 20 years in the Senate, from staff assistant to national security adviser to the Senate leader.
- 1:25Early days in the SenateArriving in Washington after Calvin College, cold-calling alumni, and a first job as a staff assistant to Senator Carl Levin in July 2001, before joining the Armed Services Committee staff in 2004.
- 5:55Reflections on 9/11Watching the attacks unfold from Senator Levin’s office in the Russell Building, and how that day shaped the next two decades of his career.
- 8:21Armed Services CommitteeRegional oversight beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, the Joint IED Defeat Organization, working for Senators Levin and Jack Reed, and the bipartisan habits that pass the NDAA every year.
- 11:25Working with Chuck SchumerJoining Senator Schumer’s office after the 2016 election, and nearly seven and a half years as one of four national security advisers to the congressional leaders.
- 14:01Policy focus on China and AIFrom the Huawei sanctions debate to Project Maven and the Endless Frontier Act, which became the CHIPS and Science Act: how China and AI moved to the center of the portfolio.
- 17:58AI Insight ForumsOrganizing Leader Schumer’s AI Insight Forums, which brought the leaders of the AI industry together with senators.
- 20:56China diplomacy and the CommissionThe October 2023 bipartisan Senate delegation to Beijing and its meeting with Xi Jinping, and his work on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
- 23:39Advice for public serviceWhy his first piece of advice to anyone coming to Washington is to go get a job on Capitol Hill.
In his words
“I am a persistent believer in the legislative branch. … It is the only place where you can take an idea, get it introduced … and get it put into law.”
— Mike Kuiken · 24:23
“It was really sort of an audacious thing to do. I don’t think it’s ever been done before.”
— Mike Kuiken · 18:23
“Senator Schumer was a fantastic boss. … I’ve never met anyone that works harder.”
— Mike Kuiken · 13:15
Shorts
Produced by the Special Competitive Studies Project. Watch on YouTube.