SENATE COMMITTEE NARROWLY ADVANCES MCCARTHY’S EPA NOMINATION

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
5/17/13

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee narrowly advanced Gina McCarthy’s nomination to serve as Environmental Protection Agency administrator this week on a party-line vote, setting up what could be a contentious confirmation battle on the Senate floor. A week after Republicans boycotted the panel’s meeting to vote on the Obama Administration’s pick to lead the EPA, members of the EPW committee voted 10-8 on May 16 to approve the nomination.

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) rushed this week to secure a quorum of committee members in order to vote on McCarthy’s nomination. Democrats outnumber Republicans on the Committee 10 to 8, but two Democrats missed last week’s business meeting, including the ailing Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), leaving Boxer unable to call a vote on May 9. The 89-year-old Lautenberg, though, was wheeled into this week’s meeting to vote in favor of McCarthy after being largely absent from the Senate in recent months due to illness.

‘Significant Steps Forward’

Ahead of this week’s vote, Committee Republicans led by Ranking Member David Vitter (R-La.), indicated progress in their talks with EPA to address what they characterize as five “key” transparency concerns at the agency. In a May 16 letter to EPA acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe, Vitter said a meeting between the two earlier this week produced “significant steps forward” on the multitude of transparency requests made by the GOP. “Should major additional progress be made in all of the five categories over the next two weeks, I will strongly support handling the McCarthy nomination on the Senate floor without a cloture vote or any 60 vote threshold,” Vitter said in the letter. “Should all of our requests in the five categories be granted, I will support the McCarthy nomination.”

Republicans said they skipped last week’s vote on McCarthy because EPA had “stonewalled” their requests, which center on the underlying scientific and economic analyses used by the Agency during its rulemaking process. They have also focused on Freedom of Information Act requests and the use of e-mail aliases by top EPA officials. Vitter said this week that Perciasepe agreed to mandate the retraining of EPA’s workforce on records management, as well as to hand over much of the underlying research data used in major EPA rulemakings and establish an expert panel to “advise the Agency on the use of whole economy modeling.” Vitter, however, underscored that Republicans had several lingering requests that must be resolved for Republicans to vote in favor of McCarthy.

Committee Democrats last week characterized the requests as unusual and “obstructionist.” They said Republicans barraged McCarthy with an unprecedented number of questions for the record—more than 1,000 queries—ahead of the vote in order to trip up her nomination. 

Possible Rough Waters Ahead

Some Republicans signaled this week that they might filibuster McCarthy’s nomination when it comes to the Senate floor, an action that would require 60 votes to overcome. It is currently unclear whether McCarthy would have enough support in the chamber to overcome such a tactic. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is still maintaining his hold on the EPA deputy’s nomination, which he has threatened to continue until the Obama Administration announces a timeline forward for a controversial flood control project in his state.

President Obama tapped McCarthy, a career environmental regulator, in March to fill the position vacated in February by former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. In her current role as EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, McCarthy has served as the primary architect of the Obama Administration’s often controversial air quality regulations.