Committee leader cancels vote on contentious EPA nominee
Critics question nominee’s efforts to exempt the military from environmental regulations, and involvement with anti-regulatory groups.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., has cancelled a committee vote Thursday on an Environmental Protection Agency nominee because he has not responded adequately to the committee's questions.
President Bush's nomination of Alex Beehler to be EPA's inspector general was pulled from a series of nomination votes in the committee because "EPA has not yet provided all information requested by members of the committee from last week's nomination hearing," according to a press release Wednesday from Inhofe's office.
Inhofe "does intend to schedule a vote on Mr. Beehler's nomination as soon as members of the committee have received and reviewed the requested information," it said.
Critics of the nomination question Beehler's efforts to exempt the military from some environmental regulations as assistant deputy undersecretary of Defense for environment, safety and occupational health.
They also cite his stint at Koch Industries, including heading a foundation there that distributed grants to such anti-regulatory groups as the Mercatus Center and the Federalist Society. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has said she will place a hold on Beehler's nomination.
Beehler was also a senior environmental trial attorney for the Justice Department and a special assistant for legal and enforcement counsel at EPA. In a statement last week, Inhofe praised him for having "a long history of working at multiple agencies within the federal government."