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Environment
Democrats Boycott Committee Vote on EPA Nominee Leavitt
(enr.construction.com - 10/06/03 issue)
By Lia
Steakley in Palo Alto, Calif.
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| LEAVITT |
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| JEFFORDS |
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| INHOFE |
Upset at Bush administration environmental
actions, Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee boycotted the panel's scheduled Oct. 1 vote on President
Bush's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency,
Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt. Democrats criticized Leavitt
and EPA for failing to respond to questions they have asked
on environmental issues, but Republicans countered that they
saw the boycott as an early round of the 2004 Presidential
campaign.
The day before the scheduled vote, the
committee's eight Democrats and one Independent, James Jeffords
of Vermont, asked committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.)
to postpone the vote on Leavitt "for at least two weeks."
Inhofe turned down that request.
Inhofe said a review of the panel's
records as far back as the late 1960s showed no other such
action had happened in the committee's history. He noted that
a confirmation vote required at least 10 of the committee's
19 members, including two of its Democrats. All 10 committee
Republicans, but only Jeffords among minority members, showed
up for the Oct. 1 session. Jeffords left after making a statement
and a brief discussion with Inhofe.
After Jeffords departed, Inhofe asked
for an unofficial vote by the Republicans on Leavitt---"You
might call it a mock roll call," Inhofe said. That tally
was 10-0 in Leavitt's favor. Although he had rejected the
Democrats' request to postpone consideration of Leavitt's
nomination, Inhofe said near the end of the Oct. 1 session
that he had rescheduled another committee business meeting
for Oct. 14, presumably to take up Leavitt again. "We'll
all be here," said Sen. John Warner of Virginia, a long-standing
committee Republican.
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Jeffords, who votes with Democrats and is the committee's
ranking minority member, said the boycott "has nothing
to do with the qualifications of Mr. Leavitt. I will vote
for him....I consider him a friend." But Jeffords said
Leavitt hasn't provided "full responses" to questions
he and Democrats have submitted to Leavitt. Jeffords has complained
for months--beginning well before Leavitt was nominated--that
EPA hasn't responded to his requests for information about
matters such as the Clean Air Act. "These are life and
death issues," Jeffords said.
Inhofe said almost 400 questions, mostly
from Democrats, had been submitted for Leavitt to answer,
compared with 67 questions asked during the committee's consideration
of Carol Browner, the head of EPA during the Clinton administration.
Inhofe said, "They are opposing [Leavitt] and obstructing
his progress and insulting our friend, our outstanding nominee."
Inhofe added, "I think the presidential
year has started early....It happens that we have three members
of this committee running for President--I'm sure that's the
reason that this is all going on." In fact, two committee
Democrats have announced they are seeking the White House:
Bob Graham of Florida and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.
(Photo courtesy of Office of Gov. Michael
Leavitt, Office of Sen. James Jeffords and Office of Sen.
James Inhofe)
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