Senator urges recess appointments for key Pentagon posts

Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., on Monday urged President Bush to use his recess appointment powers to put in place two top Pentagon officials whom the Senate failed to confirm before the August recess.

The recess appointments would be for Gordon England, Bush's pick as deputy Defense secretary, and Eric Edelman, nominated for Defense undersecretary for policy.

Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., has warned that he will oppose Edelman's nomination unless he receives documents on intelligence related to the war from former Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith.

England's confirmation has wide bipartisan support but has been held up because of lingering financial conflict-of-interest issues surrounding $280,000 in pensions he holds from defense giants General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved England's nomination Friday, even though the pension issue had not been resolved during several meetings with Warner, Pentagon counsel and the Office of Government Ethics. With the recess closing in, Warner decided to push the confirmation process forward.

Warner has said confirming England for the No. 2 Pentagon civilian position was a top priority for the committee. England, one of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's closest advisers, currently serves as the Navy secretary and as acting deputy Defense secretary, a position he took over when Paul Wolfowitz left the Defense Department to head the World Bank in May.

A spokesman for Warner said the committee and the administration are close to resolving the issue and will continue working on it even if England receives a recess appointment. "The secretary of Defense deserves a full deputy in wartime, although the issues have not been resolved," the spokesman said.

Unlike other Senate panels, the Armed Services Committee requires all top-level Defense Department nominees to divest their defense-industry stocks and buy an insurance policy to lock in the value of pensions they hold from companies that do business with the military. Most other committees only require nominees to divest stocks that could pose a conflict. MetLife, the company that had insured these officials, decided earlier this year to stop writing those policies.

Warner has said he does not plan to change the 25-year committee rule for England or any other nominee. "It's not just Gordon England, but he is the flagship here leading the way," the congressional source said. Pentagon officials have sought other insurance companies to replace MetLife but have not yet found a suitable alternative. Another option could be to use government funds to insure the pension, but Warner sees that as a less favorable solution.