Talk:Brian Harrison (Texas politician)

Civil servant
He's not a civil servant. He was a presidential appointee under the Bush administration, and he is a presidential appointee now. If his boss Azar is ousted, he may have to leave, too. Maybe "(U.S. government employee)"? I looked for precedents but so far haven't come across any former appointees who needed an identifier after a common name. Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 09:06, 26 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I suggest "government official" then. But certainly not "United States". -- Necrothesp (talk) 16:10, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * "Government official" works for me. "United States" was an odd choice. IMO, this article shouldn't have been created - WP:1E. Harrison didn't even play a major role in a minor event; if he had stuck to this father's home-building business instead of going into dog breeding it wouldn't have made the news. Oh well, water under the bridge. Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 08:04, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Necrothesp / Space4Time3Continuum2x - agree with all of the above. He's not a civil servant, he's a political appointee. As for the suitability of the article, I have no objection if you want to AfD it and will probably support delete. I created the article from a mistaken memory that chief of staff in HHS was a PASC position in the line of succession and was, therefore, a sub-cabinet officer as per WP:POLOUTCOMES. On further investigation it's not and I agree that, in the absence of inherent notability, this is BLP1E. Chetsford (talk) 03:26, 29 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I moved the page (didn't know it's that easy:) and changed the description on the disambiguation page to "political appointee in G. W. Bush and Trump administrations" (couldn't think of anything better). I'm inclined not to AfD - haven't done that yet and just in case something else develops. Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 13:01, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Sketchy bio info
The information on Harrison's past government employment is based mostly on what - his friends and fellow political hirees during the Bush and Trump administrations - Michael Reilly and Jack Kalavritinos said. They're hardly unbiased. The info is very sketchy - no exact dates or positions. Below is what I've pieced together. Does anyone have specifics on any of these items? *Dates unknown, Director of Health Care Practice, DCI Group Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 11:37, 26 April 2020 (UTC)
 * 2004 Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
 * Unspecified dates and position at Deputy Secretary's office, HHS
 * Unspecified dates and position in VP Dick Cheney's office
 * Unspecified dates and position at Pentagon
 * 2009 - ? Hired by Michael Reilly's public relations firm DCI Group as Director of Health Care Practice
 * Worked at Harrison Homes, his father's home-building business
 * 2012–2018 Owned and ran "Dallas Labradoodles" (breeders of Australian Labradoodles)
 * 2018–2019 Deputy Chief of Staff, HHS
 * June 2019–present Chief of Staff, HHS

Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 11:04, 26 April 2020 (UTC) Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 11:37, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

Resignation of Brenda Fitzgerald
Removal of sentence: During this period he was tasked with leading a "top-to-bottom" evaluation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a process which led to the eventual resignation of CDC director Brenda Fitzgerald who had traded stocks in tobacco companies while at the agency. The source says: Among Azar’s first moves at HHS was to task his chief of staff, Peter Urbanowicz, and deputy chief of staff Brian Harrison with a top-to-bottom evaluation to identify problem areas, people familiar with the situation said. Azar was sworn into office on January 29, Politico published the article on her buying tobacco stock on January 30, she resigned on January 31. Urbanowicz was Chief of Staff when Fitzgerald resigned, i.e., leading the evaluation, and it would appear to be the Politico story rather than any process that led to the prompt resignation. The sentence reads like the kind of fluff people use to bolster meager resumés. Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 12:16, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Pence
Azar put Kadlec in charge of managing the response by the health agencies and initiated daily meetings of a group that included himself, Kadlec, Fauci, Redfield, Fauci, and others (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/us/politics/kushner-trump-coronavirus.html NYT). It was officially designated "Coronavirus Task Force," led by Azar, at the end of January. A month later, Trump put Pence in charge of the task force. Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 13:31, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Degree
The Dallas Morning News wrote that Harrison graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in economics in 2004 but they only talked to his former co-workers. They didn't talk to him, and - since his official HHS bio doesn't mention either graduating or a degree - we don't have his word for it. It's fairly customary to mention any degrees you have earned, e.g. Betsy DeVos (to mention a cabinet member who doesn't have an advanced degree): "DeVos is a graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree." Space4Time3Continuum2x (talk) 15:05, 27 April 2020 (UTC)