White House Intergovernmental Affairs Office helps ‘bridge the gap’ for counties

The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which acts as a “front door” to the federal government for state and local government officials, is working to strengthen relationships and communication across levels of government to both “cut the red tape” that prevents county officials from carrying out the work they were elected to do and implement the Trump Administration’s policies on the ground, according to Alex Meyer, the Office’s director. 

The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs helps amplify the voices of the more than 500,000 state, local and tribal elected officials across the country — “from governors to dog catchers” — to the White House and is a resource that counties should be leveraging, Meyer told county officials at a Feb. 24 General Session during NACo’s Legislative Conference.

“There’s a lot of state issues who you know where to go to there, but when it’s a federal issue, it kind of log jams you a little bit, and a lot of folks are not sure where to go with it,” Meyer said. “And that’s one of the things that our office does, is they want to help bridge that gap of, ‘Hey, I do have somebody that I can call in the White House,’ which is a good feather in the cap, obviously, for everyone in this room to have.”

Too often, work that would be beneficial for localities gets “stuck in the cogs of government,” whether that’s at the state level or at a federal agency, Meyer said. Helping move that process along is the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs’ job, so that county officials can move on to the next pressing issue, he said. 

“That’s what our office does, is we go to the agency, we say, ‘Why is this stuck?’” Meyer said. “Nine times out of 10, it’s because it was sitting on what we call a ‘careerer’s’ desk, and things haven’t been turned around, so our job is to unlock that.”

If a county has key permitting or funds being tied up somewhere up the chain, the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs wants to know, so that it can work to get localities an answer, Meyer said. 

“Because ‘Yes’ is the best answer — ‘Hey, this permit is going to go forward in the right direction,’ or ‘These funds are going to start moving,’” Meyer said. “But even if it’s a ‘no,’ it’s still a good answer, because you at least are able to build your budgets around it.”

In 2025, President Trump signed 225 Executive Orders, which is more than he signed throughout his first term. As the administration continues to take a head-on approach to policymaking, it’s reliant on states and localities to implement them. 

“We can pass a lot of things at the federal level, but they have to be implemented at the state [and local] level to truly be effective,” Meyer said. “So, we’re working with everyone in this room to help get the things that we can do to kind of bring this country into this ‘Golden Age.’ We’ve seen a lot of successes, and want to make sure that we help get you the tools to be successful.”