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She's out after cuts

Homeland Security employee responsible for axing NYC terror funds won't return to agency, sources say

BY CAROL EISENBERG | Newsday Staff Writer

September 28, 2006

WASHINGTON - The political appointee who oversaw 40-percent cuts in anti-terror funding to New York City and Washington, D.C., is being edged out of her job at the Homeland Security Department, according to House and Senate sources.

Tracy Henke, executive director for grants and training, was responsible for divvying up anti-terror money to cities, ostensibly based on risk. She ignited a firestorm in June after the department slashed funding to New York and Washington while bolstering money for cities such as St. Louis and Kansas City in her home state of Missouri.

"She didn't do a good job and my understanding is she's not going to be there much longer," Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said yesterday.

"I view her as being primarily responsible for the terrible cuts that were made to New York in June," the Seaford Republican said. "She did a poor job in coming up with the numbers. She did a poor job of explaining it to the committee and, quite frankly, a lot of people didn't like her attitude."

That vote of no confidence appears to extend to the White House. This week, White House Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend told a group of reporters that she had been "quite surprised and dismayed" by the grant decisions.

Henke, 37, did not return calls for comment yesterday. Asked whether she was being forced out of the post, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, William Knocke, replied, "I've got no reason to say that."

Henke, a backdoor appointment by the White House Jan. 4, had not been confirmed by the Senate before the funding controversy because of concerns about her qualifications, as well as allegations she played politics in her prior job at the Justice Department.

House and Senate sources said she was unlikely to be confirmed in the session's remaining weeks, and that the White House would not resubmit her name to the next Congress. The White House has submitted her name for Senate confirmation three times to date - July 14, 2005, Feb. 10 and Sept. 5.

"We were told that she was renominated by the White House [Sept. 5] to soften the landing," said a House source. "But the confirmation is not going anywhere. And the White House does not intend to renominate her ... which means the nomination will automatically expire at the end of this session."

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said yesterday she could not say whether the White House would renominate Henke in the next Congress.

Questions about Henke's qualifications date to her nomination. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asked about an incident in which she reportedly demanded changes to a release about a study that found police were more likely to handcuff or arrest minorities during traffic stops.

There also were questions about her experience. She worked for Missouri senators Christopher "Kit" Bond and John Danforth before being tapped by another Missouri politician, Attorney General John Ashcroft, to work in the Justice Department.

King said he believed it was "no coincidence" that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently announced dramatic increases to New York City. "I look upon that as a vote of no confidence in her," he said.