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Rechtschaffen named director of government affairs
Posted April 7, 2006; 05:00 p.m.
Joyce A. Rechtschaffen, minority staff director and counsel for the
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and
a 1975 graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs, has been named the University's
director of government affairs.
Effective May 15, she will serve as Princeton's principal
representative in Washington on matters related to federal policy and
legislation and will oversee the University's Washington office.
With the majority party in the Senate changing twice since she joined
the committee in 1999 (when it was known as the Governmental Affairs
Committee), Rechtschaffen has served as both majority and minority
staff director, reporting to Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. She
played key roles in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security
and in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004
that resulted in the most significant overhaul of the intelligence
community in 50 years. The committee's legislative responsibilities
include matters related to government-wide policies and procedures,
including regulatory reform, government management and information and
intergovernmental relations, and it is the Senate's principal oversight
committee with a mandate to evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness and
economy of all branches of government.
Rechtschaffen previously served for 10 years as legislative assistant
and counsel in Lieberman's office, with special responsibility for
environmental, energy and transportation issues, and as counsel of the
Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Regulation of the Senate
Committee on Environment and Public Works. In this capacity she worked
extensively on the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the Energy
Policy Act of 1992 and developed the first major bipartisan climate
change legislation. She moved to Capitol Hill in 1989 from the U.S.
Department of Justice where she was a senior attorney and trial
attorney in the Environmental Enforcement Section.
"Joyce is one of the most experienced and widely respected staff
members on Capitol Hill," said Princeton Vice President and Secretary
Robert K. Durkee, to whom Rechtschaffen will report. "Her colleagues
point to her exceptional intelligence and insight, her strong
leadership and management skills, and her commitment to high standards
and hard work. We are delighted that she has agreed to take on this
ambassadorial and advocacy role, not only for Princeton, but for
research universities and higher education more generally."
The director of government affairs monitors and analyzes legislative,
regulatory and policy proposals that affect the University; develops
and carries out strategies for effectively representing the
University's interests and concerns; develops effective relationships
and communicates on Princeton's behalf with members of Congress,
Congressional staff and representatives of the administration and
federal agencies; and works collaboratively with national associations
and other universities on matters of shared interest.
The government affairs office works on issues related to federal
support for research and graduate education; undergraduate financial
aid; tax policy, including incentives for charitable giving;
immigration policy; intellectual property; and other matters. A major
area of responsibility for the office involves federal support for
fusion energy research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
As an undergraduate at Princeton, Rechtschaffen earned high honors,
graduated Phi Beta Kappa and served as a reporter and executive editor
of the student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. She graduated from
Harvard Law School in 1978 and spent five years in private practice in
Washington before moving to the Justice Department.
"Since my undergraduate days at the Woodrow Wilson School, I have
viewed Princeton as a leader in governmental policy-making,"
Rechtschaffen said. "I look forward to assisting the University in
articulating and advancing its views before the legislative and
executive branches of government on a range of issues that affect
higher education, research and the University."
Rechtschaffen lives in Maryland with her husband and son.