Senate committee approves Obama’s nomination of Gina McCarthy to head EPA
Source: Washington Post
President Obama’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency was quickly approved by a Senate committee Thursday when Republicans abandoned their boycott of a vote on the career environmental administrator, after what Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) described as “significant steps forward” on transparency issues important to the GOP.
The Committee on Environment and Public Works voted 10 to 8 along party lines in favor of Gina McCarthy, the EPA’s assistant administrator in charge of air and radiation. The vote sends McCarthy’s nomination to the Senate floor.
The Democrats in favor included Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.), 89, who has been ill and traveled from his home state in case his vote was needed to break a logjam. Shortly after the hearing began, Lautenberg was brought into the hearing room in a wheelchair and took his spot next to Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.).
Under Senate rules, a committee can vote on a nominee if 10 members, a majority, are present and vote in the affirmative. Democrats hold a 10-to-8 majority on the panel.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/senate-committee-approves-nomination-of-gina-mccarthy-to-head-epa/2013/05/16/fbebc06c-be52-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html
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... so maybe Lautenberg wanted to be there for that vote too
Although his vote wasn't needed, the final vote on the Sec of Energy was 97-0
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00127
But the GOP are assholes.
