Ari Fleischer, a spokesman for Mr. Bush, said the meeting was an early sign of how Mr. Bush would govern. The people chosen to head the federal agencies that manage social, regulatory and public works programs have extensive experience in state and local government. Some of them have already spoken out about the need to give states more leeway to run those programs as they see fit. Andrew H. Card Jr., who will be Mr. Bush's chief of staff, developed an excellent rapport with state and local officials when he was director of the White House office of intergovernmental affairs under President Ronald Reagan. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., who also held that job under Mr. Reagan, is now in line to be director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, with broad authority to review federal regulations before they are issued.
Health care is a notable example.
Like many governors, Mr. Dean said he had been frustrated in efforts to get federal approval for innovations intended to cover more people under Medicaid and the new Children's Health Insurance Program. But Mr. Dean predicted that Gov. Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin, the man chosen to be secretary of health and human and services, would be more receptive to state experiments. Seventeen states have expanded health insurance programs for children to cover parents as well, and new research shows that parents are more likely to enroll their children if the adults are also eligible. But Wisconsin, New York, Arizona and other states have had difficulty getting permission from the Clinton administration to use federal money for such family coverage. Clinton aides said they needed more information from the state.