doi:10.7916/5x76-en30Oral history interview with Neera Tanden, 2021Tanden, Neera, 1970-oral historiesmixed materialPresidents--United StatesHealth care reform--United StatesReproductive health services--Law and legislation--United StatesTanden, Neera, 1970-Obama, BarackClinton, Hillary RodhamCenter for American ProgressUnited States. Department of Health and Human ServicesUnited StatesPatient Protection and Affordable Care ActNeera Tanden reflects on her career in American public policy, and discusses her service as a senior advisor to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius during the first year of the Obama presidency. Tanden recounts the development of her interests in politics and public policy, describes her work in the Clinton White House and long-time service as a staffer to Hillary Clinton, and shares memories from her work on Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign in the Democratic Party presidential primaries and on Barack Obama's campaign in the 2008 general election. In the Obama administration, Tanden focused on the administration's healthcare reform effort, and she provides details about major issues and events relevant to the process that culminated in the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the development and politics of a public insurance option; controversies surrounding the reproductive healthcare provisions of the legislation; the coordination of interagency policy development work; the need for broad stakeholder support for the effort; the legislative history of the ACA and the congressional politics surrounding the bill; Obama's personal involvement in the details of healthcare reform; and lessons from the Clinton administration's pursuit of healthcare reform. After leaving the Obama administration, Tanden returned to the Center for American Progress (CAP), and she speaks widely about the role of CAP in the defense of the ACA; the relationship between CAP and the Obama White House; and CAP's distinctiveness from other progressive think tanks and advocacy organizations. Also discussed are Tanden's experience moving between the Clinton and Obama campaigns in 2008; the distribution of policymaking responsibility between HHS and the White House Office of Health Reform; and the politics surrounding the ACA after its passage and implementation