Senate Confirms Leavitt as EPA Administrator

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, October 28, 2003 (ENS) - The Senate today voted 88 to 8 to confirm Utah Governor Mike Leavitt as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The confirmation draws to a close a bitter partisan battle over the nomination, which was less about Leavitt's qualifications than it was about the impacts of the Bush administration's environmental policies.

Many Democrats praised Leavitt for his ability to forge consensus on difficult issues, but cast doubts as to how much influence the Utah Governor will have over an administration critics believe is waging an unprecedented assault on the nation's environmental laws and regulations.

Thirty six Democrats and Vermont Independent James Jeffords joined all 51 Senate Republicans to confirm Leavitt.

Jeffords said his vote "should not been seen as an endorsement of the Bush administration's environmental policies, but a vote in support of a fine and honorable man who has difficult job ahead of him."

Some two months after he was nominated by President George W. Bush, Utah Governor Mike Leavitt has been confirmed as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid, who also voted in favor of the nomination and spoke with regard for the Utah Governor, told colleagues that the Bush administration's environmental policies are "awful."

"I am sorry Mike Leavitt has accepted this job," Reid said, who expressed little hope that the Utah Governor would change the administration's policies.

Reid said he considers former EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman "a total disappointment" and noted that she had "a much stronger environmental record than Mike Leavitt."

Whitman, who resigned in June, was confirmed by the Senate in January 2001 by a vote of 99 to zero.

The eight Senate Democrats opposing Leavitt's confirmation were Barbara Boxer of California, Jon Corzine of New Jersey, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, John Rockefeller of West Virginia and New York's Charles Schumer.

Several who voted against the nomination echoed concerns about the Bush administration's environmental record, but also highlighted Leavitt's record as governor of Utah.

Leavitt has been Utah's governor since 1993 and is currently the longest serving state chief executive in the country - he is also the former chair of the National Governors Association, the Western Governors Association, the Republican Governors Association and the Council of State Governments.

Democrats are keen to attack President Bush's environmental record. (Photo by Tina Hager courtesy White House)

"We will not be well served by an EPA administrator who continues or even accelerates the pace at which President Bush is dismantling our fundamental environmental protections," said Lautenberg, who added that he had not been able to assess whether Leavitt shared the Bush administration's "careless disregard" for environmental protection.

"The last three years have been the darkest hour of our nation's commitment to environmental protection since the EPA was established," Lautenberg said.

Boxer said that she was not "pinning all the terrible, terrible decisions of this administration regarding the environment on Mr. Leavitt," but criticized the Utah Governor for not answering all of the questions she had asked him during confirmation hearings.

The Senate and Environment and Public Works Committee approved Leavitt's nomination by a vote of 16 to 2 on October 15.

"Mike Leavitt will be a full team player with the Bush administration and not a team player for the health of the American people," Boxer said.

Republicans said the Democrats have held Leavitt to a double standard in order to criticize the Bush administration's environmental policies for political gain, a move that has left the EPA rudderless for too long.

"Governor Leavitt is the best and most qualified nominee we have ever had," said Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "We desperately need to have this man in this office."

Conservationists say Utah Governor Mike Leavitt's settlement with Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton has rolled back environmental protection across some 200 million acres of public lands. (Photo courtesy Governor Leavitt's office)

The Oklahoma Republican also took issue with criticism of the Bush administration's environmental record, which he described as "better than any previous administration."

Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said he found criticism by Democrats of Leavitt's environmental record "personally offensive."

"Utah is one of the cleanest states in the nation and this is largely due to the work of Mike Leavitt," Hatch said. "He is a champion for the environment."

Leavitt becomes the agency's 10th administrator, taking charge of an agency with some 18,000 employees across the country, including the Washington D.C. headquarters, 10 regional offices and more than a dozen labs.

Environmentalists, who generally opposed Leavitt's nomination, expressed disappointment with today's vote.

"Governor Leavitt has the most anti environmental record of any EPA nominee since the agency was created over 30 years ago," said Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel with the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice. "Governor Leavitt's record in Utah indicates that he will not be the voice we need to stand up for environmental safeguards against the Bush administration's attempts to undercut these protections."

Four Democrats - Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, John Edwards of North Carolina, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut - did not vote today. Edwards, Kerry and Lieberman are candidates for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination.