Leavitt finally voted out of Senate committee Wednesday

WASHINGTON — As a Senate committee finally voted 16-2 Wednesday to endorse Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Democrats quickly built more and higher hurdles for him to clear in the full Senate.

Two more senators — Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — placed "holds" on Leavitt's nomination. Holds are pledges to filibuster to prevent a final vote on him unless he resolves their concerns. Leavitt now faces a total of six such tough-to-quash holds.

While most are protests against President Bush's environmental policies or seek pledges for various action, Lautenberg's new hold attacks Leavitt's personal record. "Governor Leavitt has repeatedly refused to enforce our nation's environmental laws, damaging Utah's environment so corporate polluters can make millions," he said.

Still, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., predicted Leavitt will clear all obstacles and be confirmed soon.

"I certainly believe that those individuals with holds — most of whom are running for president — will not allow cheap politics to cheapen a man of this quality," he told the Deseret Morning News. "There is no reason this man is not going to be confirmed."

Two weeks ago, Democrats staged a first-in-history boycott of Inhofe's committee to prevent achieving a legal quorum needed to vote on Leavitt. Since then, Leavitt gave more complete responses to written questions that Democrats complained he had not answered sufficiently.

Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., ranking minority member on the committee, said that was enough to move Leavitt out of committee, but warned that he and Democrats feel "additional information is still needed" from the Bush administration to address their environmental concerns before they will support final confirmation.

He said, "This administration has a pattern of not providing information to Congress. Their delivery has been about as reliable as (struggling New York Yankees pitcher) Mike Mussina's in the American League Championship Series."

Still, only two committee Democrats voted against Leavitt Wednesday: presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who both previously placed holds on Leavitt. Also, Boxer abstained as she announced her new hold against him.

Boxer issued a statement saying that Leavitt's expanded answers to questions "were still nonresponsive and evasive." So, she said, "I am placing a hold on this nomination until I get my questions answered so that I can make an informed decision on this nominee."