The Common Good presents the first in a new series of conversations with top U.S. Leaders. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson heads our series, starting with Governor Ned Lamont (D-CT) on how we will be getting back to normal, or what our new normal will look like. What does the phased return to reopen the tri-state area look like?
Secretary Johnson was appointed by President Obama on December 23, 2013, following confirmation by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 78-16. Previously, Secretary Johnson was appointed by President Obama to be General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 2009 through 2012. In that position, Johnson was one of the legal architects for the U.S. military’s counterterrorism mission during President Obama’s first term.
In 2010, Johnson co-authored a 250-page report that paved the way for the repeal by Congress of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law that prohibited gays from serving openly in the U.S. military. From October 1998 to January 2001, Johnson served in the Clinton Administration as General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force. From 1989 through 1991, Secretary Johnson was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted public corruption cases.
Lamont got involved in public service shortly after college, founding a weekly newspaper in a town hit by the loss of its largest employer. Covering town meetings and the Board of Selectmen, he helped to bring voice and transparency to a community working to recover from job losses and reinvent itself. He would later go on to start his own business, taking on the large and established giants of the telecom industry. Under his vision and stewardship, the company grew to serve over 400 of America's largest college campuses and 1 million college students across the nation.
He received the 2006 Democratic nomination for senator, against incumbent Joe Lieberman. Lamont won the 2018 Gubernatorial election for Connecticut and has started working on his plans to implement electronic tolls on state highways, taxing online streaming services, restoring the property tax credit,increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour, instituting paid family and medical leave,. During this epidemic he holds daily briefings and provides vital updates on how the state is combating COVID-19.