In Transition

Vice President-elect Joe Biden announced his legislative affairs director today, and it’s one of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s policy aides. Sudafi Henry, who worked on the financial bailout package for Hoyer this fall, will become Biden’s top congressional lobbyist, an appointment that will offer some needed House expertise to a vice president who served in the Senate for more than three decades.

Henry is currently Hoyer’s counsel and senior policy adviser, a job he has had since March, when he was promoted from his old position as deputy external relations director. Henry’s issue specialties include financial services, which made him Hoyer’s point man on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). He also worked on trade, consumer issues, telecommunications, and intellectual property issues.

In a statement, Biden called Henry “a rising star on Capitol Hill, who has earned the trust of many members of Congress. I am pleased he will lead our efforts to build strong working relationships with members of both parties, and in both the House and the Senate.”

Biden also named Alan Hoffman, a former Biden chief of staff who has been one of his top aides on the transition team, as deputy chief of staff. In addition to heading Biden’s Senate staff from 1998 to 2003 and from 2006 through 2008, Hoffman is a former prosecutor who was senior vice president for external relations for the University of California system just before joining the transition team.

— David Nather