EPA Chief Tapped for Switch to Health Agency

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, December 14, 2004 (ENS) - President George W. Bush chose U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Leavitt on Monday to take charge of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The White House did not name a successor for Leavitt, whose brief one year tenure at the helm of the EPA did little to please conservationists dismayed with the environmental record of the Bush administration.

Bush called Leavitt an "ideal choice" to lead HHS, one of the largest federal agencies.

The $580 billion agency includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Indian Health Service.

Some $67 billion of the agency's budget is discretionary - the remainder goes to Medicare and Medicaid.

If confirmed, Leavitt will take the reins of the department from former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, who resigned last week.

Leavitt said his focus at HHS would be on implementing the new senior prescription drug benefit under Medicare, the expansion of federal cooperation with faith based groups that provide health services, as well as medical liability reform, and bioterrorism.

There are important links between the EPA and HHS, the 53 year old Utah native said during Monday's White House press briefing.

EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt has been tapped by President Bush to run the Department of Health and Human Services. (Photo by Eric Draper courtesy White House)

Bush praised Leavitt's leadership of the EPA and said the three term Utah governor "has upheld this administration's commitment to sustain improvements in the quality of the natural environment."

"He has managed the EPA with skill and with a focus on results," Bush said.

Leavitt told reporters that he feels a "real sense of understandable regret after having to leave the Environmental Protection Agency."

"It is an agency that is filled with dedicated people whom I have come to have great affection for and have a sense of shared importance and mission in protecting public health," Leavitt said.

He is expected to face an easy and quick confirmation by the Senate - unlike his contentious road to confirmation as EPA chief.

Leavitt was picked by Bush to head the EPA in mid-August 2003 as a replacement for Christie Todd Whitman, who had resigned three months prior.

He was not confirmed until late October 2003, as Democrats used his nomination to highlight their criticism of the Bush administration's environmental record.

Many Democrats and other critics contend the White House has undermined enforcement at the EPA, rolled back existing regulations, and sided with industry over public health and environmental protection.

"It is my hope that his replacement will be able to move forward to protect human health and the environment, rather than repeat the poor record of the Bush administration over the past four years," said Senator James Jeffords, a Vermont Independent and a leading Senate critic of the Bush environmental record.

But the administration - and Leavitt - received broad praise from industry groups and many Republicans, who favor the administration's focus on market-based solutions to cutting pollution.

"Mike Leavitt brought common sense western values, strong management skills, and solid leadership to the EPA," said Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who has been critical of both the agency and of environmental groups.

Leavitt spent much of his energy at EPA on the Bush administration's clean air regulations, in particular new regulations to cut power plant emissions.

Air regulations proposed on Leavitt's watch centered on the administration's attempt to implement much of its controversial "Clear Skies" initiative through administrative rules rather than passing it into law through a recalcitrant Congress.

Leavitt said the plan, which includes cap and trade proposals to cut emission of mercury, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), would help create "the most productive period of air quality improvement in American history."

EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt says the administration's environmental record has been mischaracterized and is one worthy of praise. (Photo courtesy EPA)

Although he repeatedly said the agency would finalize the rule by year's end, Leavitt said last week the administration has decided to delay the implementation of the regulation - known as the Clean Air Interstate Rule - until at least March, as officials wait to see if the new Congress passes legislation enacting Clear Skies.

The legislative version of Clear Skies, heavily promoted by Inhofe, is favored by power plant utilities as provided additional flexibility that will encourage faster emission reductions.

Yet it has drawn sharp criticism from environmentalists, public health groups and state air pollution control officials, who argue the legislative embodiment of the plan weakens existing law and is less protective of human health and less aggressive than the proposed rule.

Ed Hopkins, director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality program called the delay of the Clean Air Interstate Rule the "most recent failure" of the Bush EPA.

"Given the administration's track record on the environment, we have little hope that President Bush's next EPA Administrator will be allowed do a better job of cutting pollution and keeping families safe," Hopkins said.