Senate confirms Interior deputy nominee

Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, on Wednesday released his hold on the nominee for deputy secretary of the Interior Department after resolving a dispute over oil and gas development near some of Utah's national parks. The Senate then confirmed David Hayes to the post by unanimous consent Wednesday evening.

Hayes, a Washington lawyer who was deputy Interior secretary at the end of the Clinton administration, had been blocked since March because of concerns raised by Bennett and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, about the Obama administration's oil and gas policies.

Last week, the Senate fell three votes short of the 60 needed to invoke cloture on the Hayes nomination, making Hayes the first Obama nominee to be blocked by a Senate vote.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told Bennett earlier Wednesday that if Hayes was confirmed, he will be quickly dispatched to Utah to review more than 75 oil and gas leases. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance also says it will sit down with Hayes to explain why the leases have been held up by a federal lawsuit, according to the Associated Press.

Salazar had revoked the leases that were auctioned off near the end of former President George W. Bush's last term.