Tag: nomination

Ken Salazar on Blocked Nomination

  • Senator Robert F. Bennett blocked the nomination of David Hayes as the Deputy Interior Secretary (Photo courtesy of the US Senate)

This week the Senate is expected to take up President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of Interior. Lester Graham reports the nomination was blocked last week because of a dispute over oil and gas leases:

Transcript

This week the Senate is expected to take up President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of Interior. Lester Graham reports the nomination was blocked last week because of a dispute over oil and gas leases:

Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar says he knows his old Senate colleague Bob Bennett of Utah very well, and he understands the politics behind blocking the nomination of Salazar’s deputy.

Senator Bennett and his fellow Republicans blocked the nomination of David Hayes after Secretary Salazar canceled leases for oil and gas drilling near National Parks in Utah.

Salazar says the leases were rushed through late in the Bush administration without proper environmental review.

Senate Democrats say the Hayes nomination will be brought up again. Secretary Salazar says he hopes so.

“I sure hope that it happens. You know I think Senator Durbin and others, Senator Reid, indicated they think that it can happen this week. I hope that it does.”

The Democrats will need the votes of Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd. Both men have been absent from the Senate because of health problems.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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Ijc Chairman to Win Confirmation?

President Bush’s nomination to lead a Great Lakes governing council has been held up in the U.S. Senate for 15 months. But there are signals that interim International Joint Commission Chairman Dennis Schornack might soon win confirmation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta has more:

Transcript

President Bush’s nomination to lead a Great Lakes governing council has been held up in the U.S.
Senate for 15 months. But there are signals that interim International Joint Commission Chairman
Dennis Schornack might soon win confirmation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta
has more:


Dennis Schornack is President Bush’s nominee to be the U.S. chair of the International Joint
Commission. The IJC resolves disputes over the use of the Great Lakes.


Senator Debbie Stabenow is using a prerogative of her office to hold up his confirmation. The
two are long-time political adversaries. And Stabenow says she has questions over Schornack’s
positions on Great Lakes drilling, and water diversion. But she’s willing to give his record a
second look.


Schornack says he expects she’ll find they agree on a lot – especially the position that Congress
should not have the final word on Great Lakes decisions.


“States and provinces should be in charge. They’re the people with the resources, they’re the
people with the real stake in the Great Lakes.”


Stabenow says she’ll make a decision by September. Schornack’s appointment expires at the end
of the year if the Senate does not act on it.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Rick Pluta.

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Bush Nominee Faces Challenges

A former state administrator from the Midwest has been nominated by President Bush to fill the nation’s top environmental enforcement position. Former Ohio EPA director Donald Schregardus now faces Senate confirmation to become the Assistant USEPA Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance. But, as Senate confirmation hearings begin in Washington, activists in Ohio say Schregardus’ pro-business philosophy makes him the wrong choice for the job. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston reports: