Executive Correspondence Operations 

A critical facet of NIH Exec Sec’s mission is to ensure that correspondence addressed to the NIH Director and Principal Deputy Director receives appropriate visibility and response, if appropriate, by a subject matter expert within a set timeframe. Exec Sec assigns correspondence via SAAVI and ensures draft responses are comprehensive, reflect current policy, and are well written. Exec Sec also receives assignments from the Office of the Secretary and preparation of those responses follows the same guidelines.

NIH Exec Sec manages the clearance of all policy-related materials on behalf of the NIH Director and Principal Deputy Director. Clearance requests are assigned through SAAVI. This includes materials that require their approval and/or signature, draft correspondence responses, and other correspondence and executive policy documents from NIH, HHS, the White House, and other government agencies.

NIH Exec Sec manages all legislatively mandated reports to Congress that are prepared by NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices (ICOs), ensuring they are signed by the appropriate NIH official(s) or provided to the HHS Executive Secretariat for signature by appropriate HHS official(s), before being transmitted to Congress. Appropriations Reports to Congress, which are reports in response to Appropriations Committee report language, are coordinated by the NIH Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis (OLPA), which works with NIH Exec Sec to facilitate approval of the final versions by the NIH Director and/or Principal Deputy Director.