Major elements of the Obama administration’s health care, education, economic recovery, climate change, and financial reform initiatives have important intergovernmental consequences. This article reviews this broad intergovernmental agenda and analyzes its potential to shape the contours and future direction of American federalism. Utilizing a policy instruments framework, it examines trends in fiscal federalism, federal mandating, preemption, and other policy tools. We conclude that the most significant feature of President Obama’s approach to intergovernmental relations thus far may be his hybrid model of federal policy innovation and leadership, which mixes money, mandates, and flexibility in new and distinctive ways. At the same time, political constraints on the scope and sustainability of the Obama administration’s intergovernmental policies may limit this strategy’s future development.
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