Senator Carper’s Statement On Status of Leavitt Nomination

WASHINGTON – Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., today released the following statement regarding the nomination of Mike Leavitt to be the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: “I have been privileged to know Mike Leavitt for more than a decade, we served for eight years as governors of our representative states, and I say unequivocally that Governor Leavitt is a man of integrity and intelligence. He’s been a good public servant to the people of Utah and, indeed, of our country. The fact that a vote on his nomination has been postponed for two weeks in the Environment and Public Works Committee has nothing to do with Mike Leavitt and everything to do with the Democratic senators’ needs to get the answers we deserve on the administration’s environmental record. Committee members submitted some 400 questions to Governor Leavitt, but he only had three days to respond. He made a valiant effort. Understandably, some of the answers appear to be insufficient, and I agree with my Democratic colleagues that we ought to give Governor Leavitt some additional time to answer them. Two weeks should give Governor Leavitt ample opportunity to respond more fully. Just as the committee deserves the opportunity to review Governor Leavitt’s and the administration’s record, Governor Leavitt deserves an opportunity for a vote on his nomination. I have conveyed those views personally both to the committee’s Democratic leadership and to Governor Leavitt.”