Senator David Vitter (R-LA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, said Tueday that he will no longer block the nomination of Environmental Protection Agency official Gina McCarthy to head the EPA. Vitter said that he would support a vote on the Senate floor without a filibuster. President Obama nominated McCarthy in March, and the committee approved her in May.
Senator Vitter said that the changed his position on McCarthy as he is now satisfied with the results of negotiations with the EPA on demands he and other committee Republicans made of the EPA. However, McCarthy, EPA’s assistant administrator in charge of air and radiation, still faces a hold on her nomination from Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO). Blunt said he is not satisfied that EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agree on facts about a floodway project in his state.
