Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.  

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When President JOE BIDEN took office, he vowed to get rid of the buttoned-up, elitist culture that often defines Washington and, more specifically, White House hiring — the “pale, male and Yale” flavor, as the old saying goes.

Biden has made progress on the “pale” and “male” fronts, naming an all-female communications team when he first took office and elevating Black and Latino staffers to key decision-making roles.

But he can’t seem to shake the Yale part. Or, more specifically, Yale Law School.

Out of roughly 140 lawyers in the White House, approximately 36 hold degrees from Yale Law School, more than any other law school, according to a West Wing Playbook analysis. That figure doesn’t include the dozens of Yale Law graduates who have been appointed to agency positions throughout the Biden administration.

The density of Yale lawyers on the White House campus has become a bit of a joke among some staffers who say it’s hard to go into a room without bumping into at least one alumni. Yale Law degrees are so prevalent that the shared New Haven experience has also been a way to connect with colleagues, especially earlier in the administration when Covid kept people from working in-person and many staffers were trying to get to know each other over Zoom.

It’s not uncommon for grads of top law schools to land prestigious White House positions (there also were plenty of Yale Law alumni in the Obama administration). And it’s not only Democrats who have ties to the institution. Republican lawmakers may bemoan the elitism of Ivy Leaguers but many are, themselves, graduates.

The numbers, nevertheless, lay bare the difficulty of Biden’s push to make White House hiring result in “the most diverse administration ever” without a sharper focus on class or educational background.

Among the Biden senior staff who went to Yale Law are national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN, deputy national security adviser JON FINER and senior adviser and staff secretary NEERA TANDEN. White House counsel STUART DELERY also is a Yale Law grad, as was his predecessor DANA REMUS. Recently-departed director of the National Economic Council BRIAN DEESE attended Yale Law, as did NEC deputy director BHARAT RAMAMURTI (both overlapped with Finer at Yale). Interestingly enough, of the approximately 29 total lawyers in the White House counsel’s office specifically, just three appear to have attended Yale Law.

It’s not just leadership. Many of the junior staffers also went to Yale Law. The end result isn’t just a White House staff shaped by remarkably similar educational upbringings but a closed-off personnel ecosystem that becomes harder and harder for outsiders to pierce.

“There’s a pipeline effect,” said a former Biden White House official and Yale Law grad. “Alumni recruit other Yale Law School alumni.”

White House spokesperson ROBYN PATTERSON defended the administration’s hiring. “The state school graduate who sits in the Oval Office and his HBCU-educated Vice President might disagree with the idea that non-Ivy Leaguers are locked out of policy making processes within the most diverse White House in history,” she said.

Another current White House official and Yale Law grad meanwhile cautioned not to put too much weight on the credential.

“I’ve been in plenty of meetings where the person who went to, like, George Mason Law was sharper than the person who went to Yale Law,” the Yalie said.

Current and former administration officials who spoke to West Wing Playbook said they didn’t think there was something unique about Yale Law that prepared them to be better lawyers or policy makers (many joked that you didn’t actually learn the law at Yale). Rather, they said that the high volume of Yale Law degrees in the White House reflect how Ivy League graduates continue to be heavily favored — or, at a minimum, how it has become a quick résumé validator for those doing the hiring.

“Ivy league tracking and background of people in general in D.C. policymaking circles is problematic, and making sure that people who have lived experience that represents a diverse range of Americans is really important,” said another former Biden White House official — who also went to Yale Law.

Some professors defended the Yale-to-White House pipeline, arguing that Yale Law attracts the type of student who wants to work in public policy and is most likely to do so. “They had an interest in public service to begin with. They came to Yale Law, not Stanford Business School,” said CHUCK MUCKENFUSS, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law who has taught a number of current White House officials.

BOB SOLOMON, former director of clinical studies at Yale Law School, said that his former students who are now in the White House are all “smart” and “workaholics.” But he also said that it would be fair for senior White House officials recruiting staffers to ask whether they could “take a chance on someone” who didn’t go to Yale.

“It's a network that is merit based. On the other hand, it obviously excludes a lot of people,” said Solomon.

CORRECTING THE RECORD: In Tuesday’s newsletter about junk fees, we referred to two pieces of legislation introduced by GOP lawmakers and failed to clarify that they were introduced in past sessions of Congress. They were not, as our phrasing made it seem, responses to Biden’s State of the Union. We regret the mistake.

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With help from the White House Historical Association

Which first lady hired the first full time floral arrangers for the White House?

(Answer at the bottom.)

WILL HE OR WON’T HE? As Biden mulls over whether or not to run for reelection, some Democrats have begun to plan for what could happen if the president doesn’t run in 2024, Eli, CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO, JONATHAN LEMIRE, HOLLY OTTERBEIN and ELENA SCHNEIDER report.

Aides had signaled the president was set to launch a reelection campaign in February, but the new timeline is for an April launch, at the earliest. Biden himself has yet to make a final decision. That’s causing “an awkward deep-freeze across the party — in which some potential presidential aspirants and scores of major donors are strategizing and even developing a Plan B while trying to remain respectful and publicly supportive of the 80-year-old president.”

Meantime, top Biden aides continue to map out a campaign organization. Future Forward will be the top Democratic super PAC behind the reelect, the story scoops, but other groups like Priorities USA and American Bridge will also have a big role.

ASHES ASHES, WE ALL FALL DOWN: Before wrapping his three-day trip to Eastern Europe, Biden attended a private Catholic mass in his Warsaw hotel to mark Ash Wednesday. He took ashes from a Polish priest, WIESLAW DAWIDOWSKI, who posted details and photos on Facebook a short time later. “We prayed for peace, the conversion of Russia and the light of the Holy Spirit for Mr. President,” he wrote (foreign pooler MAREK WALKUSKI of Polish radio first reported the post).

After a meeting with the Bucharest Nine, Biden headed for the airport. He slipped briefly while ascending the stairs. But, it was far better than the still unidentified staffer who tumbled halfway down Air Force One’s backstairs upon arrival in Poland earlier this week.

MUIR’S POTUS SIT-DOWN: Biden participated in an interview with ABC News’ DAVID MUIR on Wednesday before leaving Poland. He told the anchor it was a “mistake” for VLADIMIR PUTIN to suspend Russia’s participation in the New START treaty. But Biden added that he didn’t think the move meant Putin was “thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Or should we say what they want you to watch. White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES tweeted a clip of former Vice President MIKE PENCE on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” talking about how large entitlement programs need to be part of larger debt ceiling negotiations: “While I respect the Speaker's commitment to take Social Security and Medicare off the table for the debt ceiling negotiations, we’ve got to put them on the table in the long term.”

Bates noted that Pence “joins the long line of officials proving @POTUS right that Republicans want deep cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This story by NYT’s DEBORAH B. SOLOMON about a new estimate as to when the U.S. could default. The debt ceiling could be hit “sometime this summer or early fall if Congress does not raise or suspend [it],” Solomon writes. “The day when the United States runs out of cash — known as the X date — depends largely on how much the Treasury Department collects in 2022 tax revenue, the Bipartisan Policy Center said. The group warned that moment could be ‘too close for comfort’ given the vagaries around tax receipts.”

FINALLY, MORE ACCESSIBLE CARBS: The White House’s lunchroom is reopening for in-person dining for the first time since the pandemic shut down that option in 2020, Axios’s HANS NICHOLS reports. “By D.C. standards, prices are low,” Nichols writes. “A BLT costs $6. The West Wing burger is $7, with French fries another $2.50.” We’d like to try the West Wing burger.

OHIO BOUND: Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG is set to travel Thursday to East Palestine, Ohio, 20 days after a freight train derailed in the area, spilling chemicals and forcing nearby residents to move, our ADAM WREN reports. During his visit, Buttigieg will get an update from the National Transportation Safety Board on its investigation into the incident. His trip comes as the White House is feeling intense criticism from Republicans and scrutiny from the media over its response to the derailment.

AN ECONOMIC TEAM FOR A DIVIDED GOVERNMENT: As LAEL BRAINARD takes the helm atop the national economic council, our BEN WHITE and ADAM CANCRYN lay out how her role will differ from her predecessor, BRIAN DEESE. She and JARED BERNSTEIN, Biden’s pick to lead the council of economic advisers, both have strong credibility with progressives and an ability to make the administration’s case on television, something the president has told aides is a priority.

Deese was closely involved in the major legislative pushes of Biden’s first two years, but Brainard has a background in international affairs and at the Federal Reserve. That will benefit her as she focuses on resolving disputes with Europe and Asia over new U.S. tech subsidies and helping the White House negotiate with Republicans to raise the debt limit.

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: THOMAS ISEN, the senior adviser to Cabinet Secretary EVAN RYAN, is leaving the White House on Friday, Lippman has learned. Isen, who also served as Ryan's chief of staff on the transition, plans to announce his next steps soon.

— MATTHEW PEARL is now director of emerging technology at the National Security Council with its cyber directorate, Daniel has also learned. He most recently was associate bureau chief at the FCC in the wireless bureau.

— JEN HARRIS is leaving the White House, where she was senior director for international economics in a dual-hatted role at the NSC and NEC, and special assistant to the president, Daniel has also learned. She most recently focused on issues surrounding clean energy supply chains while NORA TODD handled more of the economic portfolio. After she leaves the administration on Friday, Harris will work to stand up efforts to support IRA implementation on the outside.

QUEUED UP: The Senate Commerce Committee is set to hold a confirmation hearing next week for Biden’s pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, PHIL WASHINGTON, despite Republican efforts to stall the nomination, ALEX DAUGHERTY reports for Pro subscribers.

Biden seeks to bolster NATO as he wraps up foreign trip (WaPo’s Matt Viser)

This obscure Senate tradition may decide whether Biden beats Trump's record on judges (NBC News’ Sahil Kapur)

Inside Taiwanese Chip Giant, a U.S. Expansion Stokes Tensions (NYT’s John Liu and Paul Mozur)

We may have found the nerdiest battle of the band moment to date — and White House science adviser FRANCIS COLLINS, naturally, was part of it.

Back in December 1997, two bands performed for the D.C. Science Writers' Association: The Directors and Wild Type. The latter consisted of John Hopkins professionals. The former featured Collins, who at the time was the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

The Directors performed their rendition of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" which they titled "Will our Funding Keep on Growing?" and a few other popular folk, gospel and rock songs.

Although there was no definitive winner from the night, the NIH Catalyst, a newsletter for the agency, summed up the event, writing that Wild Type was “phenotypically stronger for true rock traits the more folksy, clever ‘Directors’ would be well advised to keep up their day jobs.”

Please, God, we don’t ask for much. But if you have a recording of this, send it to our tips line.

First lady LUCY WEBB HAYES hired the White House’s first full time set of floral arrangers, also called “bouquet makers,” in the late 1870s, according to the White House Historical Association.

A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.