Recruits TFIIH to the initiation complex and stimulates the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain kinase and DNA-dependent ATPase activities of TFIIH. Both TFIIH and TFIIE are required for promoter clearance by RNA polymerase (By similarity). TFIIE is a tetramer of two alpha and two beta subunits. Belongs to the TFIIE alpha subunit family. The gene for this protein is duplicated in strains AX3 and AX4. These strains contain a duplication of a segment of 750 kb of chromosome 2 compared to the corresponding sequence in strain AX2.