Department of Justice Seal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AG

MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2001

(202) 616-2777

WWW.USDOJ.GOV

TDD (202) 514-1888


ATTORNEY GENERAL ASHCROFT WELCOMES PRESIDENT BUSH'S

ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICIAL


WASHINGTON, D.C. Attorney General John Ashcroft today designated Tracy Henke to serve as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General (PDAAG) of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP).

"I look forward to working with Tracy to strengthen our nation's criminal justice system," Ashcroft said. "Her experience in the Senate makes her perfectly capable to handle this enormous responsibility. She is a definite asset to the department."

OJP, whose broad mission is to improve the nation's state and local criminal and juvenile justice systems, includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Office for Victims of Crime. In addition, OJP has the Violence Against Women Office, the Corrections Program Office, The Drug Courts Program Office, the Weed and Seed Office, the Office of the Police Corps and Law Enforcement Education, and the Office of Domestic Preparedness.

OJP awards approximately $4 billion in grants each year in an effort to make our nation's criminal and juvenile systems more efficient and effective and to address problems relating to crime, delinquency, drugs and violence. Dedicated to comprehensive approaches, OJP supports the Office and Bureaus as they identify emerging criminal justice issues, develop new ideas and test promising approaches, evaluate program results, collect statistics, conduct analyses and disseminate these findings and other information to state and local units of government, criminal justice practitioners, the media, and the public, as well as to other countries.

As PDAAG of OJP, Henke will advise and assist the Assistant Attorney General(AAG), key Presidential appointees and other senior staff in fulfilling President Bush's and Attorney General Ashcroft's agenda and mandates. Henke, acting with the AAG, will exercise full responsibility for carrying out all policy, programmatic, legal and managerial matters required to assure OJP 's effective and efficient operations and the proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Henke served as Senior Policy Advisor for U.S. Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond of Missouri. In this position Henke was responsible for developing and implementing the Senator's policy objectives, strategies, and operating plans for a variety of issues. In addition, she served as the Senator's point person on all appropriation issues and worked on devising outreach strategies and coalition building.

Henke, who also worked for Senator Jack Danforth, received her Bachelor Degree in Political Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and is originally from Moscow Mills, Missouri.

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