TEXAN IN LINE TO BE 1ST FEMALE DEA CHIEF

WASHINGTON - Texan Karen Tandy, a top Justice Department lawyer who heads a
national drug enforcement task force, is on track to become the first woman
to run the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Tandy, 49, who grew up in Hurst, breezed through a Senate hearing Wednesday
with strong assurances that she will ultimately be confirmed by the full
Senate. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., promised Senate action in "short order."

If confirmed, the career prosecutor Tandy will help oversee the Bush
administration's war on drugs, an illicit multibillion-dollar industry. An
estimated 15 million Americans use illegal drugs, feeding international
smuggling rings stretching from China to Colombia and across the border in
Mexico.

Tandy, who was nominated to the DEA post by President Bush in June, has
been praised for heading and revitalizing a 20-year-old nationwide task
force that has secured more than 17,000 drug convictions and sentences
since she took over in 1999. The task force encompasses three federal
departments and 2,400 agents.

An associate deputy attorney general, Tandy has spent nearly half her life
chasing criminals, but her reputation as a crime fighter contrasts with her
other persona as a suburban mom. As a Girl Scout leader in Fairfax County,
Va., she helped organize food drives for homeless children. She and her
husband, former federal agent Steven Pomerantz, have two teen-age daughters.

Tandy is a 1971 graduate of Hurst's L.D. Bell High School, where she was in
the National Honor Society and was voted Miss L.D. Bell. Among awards
listed on her 20-page resume is a 1971 employee scholarship from Six Flags
Over Texas.

After graduating from Texas Tech School of Law in 1974, Tandy worked
briefly as a clerk for a federal judge in Lubbock and then joined the
organized-crime section of the Justice Department. She made a steady ascent
to the department's upper ranks.

"There are few people in this country who have the practical experience and
intellectual capability that you do," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, a
former U.S. attorney, told Tandy during her appearance before the Senate
Judiciary Committee.

Tandy was introduced at the hearing by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas,
who called Tandy an "excellent choice."

Outlining her goals for the drug enforcement agency, Tandy promised to bear
down on the "money supply" of drug operations, but didn't offer specifics.
She also pledged an aggressive effort to retain and promote DEA personnel,
noting that nearly half the senior staff is up for retirement in 18 months.

She joked that "nearly half the DEA is in the room right now," noting the
dozens of agency officials behind her at the hearing. Her husband was also
present.

As head of the DEA, Tandy would supervise nearly 4,000 agents throughout
the United States and in 56 foreign countries. Operating on a budget of
$1.6 billion, the DEA is the only federal agency whose sole mission is
drug-law enforcement.

Grant Ashley, assistant director of the Justice Department's criminal
investigative division, described Tandy as "tireless and exceptionally
bright," with extensive knowledge of the nation's drug operations.

Tandy prosecuted several major cases as an assistant U.S. attorney during
the 1980s, including an 18-month grand jury investigation that resulted in
convictions of 20 defendants and the seizure of assets valued at more than
$8 million, including a Tiffany lamp collection worth more than $1 million.

After six of the defendants fled to Costa Rica during the investigation,
Tandy led a team to the Central American nation to seek their return,
securing the first extraditions ever from Costa Rica.

Tandy wrote the handbook that U.S. attorneys use to conduct criminal
forfeiture proceedings. She has supervised major anti-drug initiatives by
the Justice Department and helped develop the department's domestic
drug-enforcement strategy.

Karen Tandy

Birth date: Oct. 24, 1953, Tarrant County

Education: L.D. Bell High School, Hurst, 1971; Texas Tech University,
bachelor of science in education, 1974; Texas Tech School of Law, law
degree, 1977

Career: Judicial clerk, Lubbock, 1978; 1978-present, various positions in
U.S. Justice Department; current position, associate deputy-attorney
general and director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

Family: Husband, Steven Pomerantz; two teen-age daughters

ONLINE: Drug Enforcement Administration, www.usdoj.gov/dea