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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats, seizing on an opportunity to try to squeeze information from the Bush administration, boycotted a meeting Wednesday and forced a two-week delay in voting to fill the top job at the Environmental Protection Agency. Eight Democrats refused to attend the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting to vote on President Bush's nomination of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt as EPA administrator. Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., who formerly chaired the committee and frequently sides with Democrats on environmental issues, said he and the Democrats simply wanted information on environmental policies that the administration and EPA have...

Sen. Clinton vows to continue blocking EPA nominee By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer September 30, 2003, 6:48 PM EDT WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she still plans to block President Bush's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency in an ongoing dispute over the administration's response to Sept. 11 air-quality concerns. Clinton, D-N.Y., met with White House environmental official James Connaughton Tuesday to discuss her intention to block a Senate vote on Utah governor Mike Leavitt's nomination to head the EPA. Clinton has vowed to use a parliamentary procedure known as a "hold" to prevent a...

<p>WASHINGTON — Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (search) held a "mock" vote Wednesday to support President Bush's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency after committee Democrats refused to show up.</p> <p>The Democratic boycott of Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt's nomination, which prevented the quorum needed to convene a hearing, sought to highlight two issues, according to Sen. Jim Jeffords, ranking member of the committee, who came to the hearing to explain the Democratic stunt.</p>

New guidelines issued Monday by the Bush administration could allow oil and gas companies and off-road vehicles on federal lands that had been off-limits to protect their natural qualities. The policy directives were sent to BLM state offices to implement an agreement Interior Secretary Gale Norton struck with Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt in April to resolve a lawsuit the state filed against the department. The settlement rescinded protection for 3 million acres in Utah and millions of additional acres across the West. Leavitt has since been nominated by President Bush to head the Environmental Protection Agency. The backroom deal has...

Utah GOP Governor Mike Leavitt will soon become President Bush’s administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, but not before Democrats in the Senate – acting as if they are still in the majority – get a piece of him. He’s currently being grilled by those who clearly have a political ax to grind. For example, Hillary Clinton, serving on the Environment and Public Works Committee, wants to know what was in the dust created from the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. Seems that Mrs. Clinton suspects Bush’s EPA hid some information about what might be contained in that...

<p>Senate Democrats, including a few presidential hopefuls, used a committee hearing on President Bush's choice for Environmental Protection Agency administrator to attack the administration's environmental policies.</p> <p>Several senators placed holds on Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt's nomination. Among them were Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, both of whom yesterday renewed their pledge to block the nomination until key questions are answered.</p>

Senator Clinton’s decision to use the turmoil and tragedy of the killings at the World Trade Center on September 11 to put a hold on the nomination of President Bush’s pick for head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mike Leavitt, doesn’t bode well for her role in the coming political season. As the second anniversary of the attacks nears, the senator representing the victims and many of their families has made it her priority to demand hearings on the notion that the White House may have issued overly soothing statements about whether it was still safe to breathe in Lower...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday she planned to block President Bush's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency over an internal report saying the EPA misled New Yorkers about health risks after the World Trade Center attack. In a telephone interview, Clinton told The Associated Press she would place a hold on the nomination of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a procedural move that would prevent the full Senate from voting on his confirmation, though it does not stop committee hearings. "This is an effort to get the administration that he wants to join to take responsibility," she said. Clinton...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday she planned to block President Bush's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency over an internal report saying the EPA misled New Yorkers about health risks after the World Trade Center attack. In a telephone interview, Clinton told The Associated Press she would place a hold on the nomination of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a procedural move that would prevent the full Senate from voting on his confirmation. ``This is an effort to get the administration that he wants to join to take responsibility,'' she said. She said she held...

<p>Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday she planned to block President Bush's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency over an internal report saying the EPA misled New Yorkers about health risks after the World Trade Center attack.</p> <p>In a telephone interview, Clinton told The Associated Press she would place a hold on the nomination of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a procedural move that would prevent the full Senate from voting on his confirmation.</p>

As Christie Whitman’s mercifully brief tenure as Director of the Environmental Protection Agency came to an end, the hope was that President Bush would appoint someone who would reform an agency that has done everything in its power to cripple the nation’s economy. The EPA has done everything it could to restrict access to energy and other natural resources, has put Americans at risk by banning or forcing beneficial pesticides off the market, and has attacked property rights in every way it could. The appointment of three-term Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, if confirmed, would be worse than the bumbling of...

The political environment in the United States is about to get worse. This fall, the Senate will open confirmation hearings for Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt, President Bush's selection to run the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the Democrats aiming to replace Bush fired the first shot. "The American people deserve to know whether Gov. Leavitt shares the same disregard for clean air, clean water, land conservation and global warming as the president," Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut announced. Expect more attacks over the coming weeks, since that's what always seems to happen to EPA nominees who don't march in lockstep...

As Christie Whitman's mercifully brief tenure as Director of the Environmental Protection Agency came to an end, the hope was that President Bush would appoint someone who would reform an agency that has done everything in its power to cripple the nation's economy. The EPA has done everything it could to restrict access to energy and other natural resources, has put Americans at risk by banning or forcing beneficial pesticides off the market, and has attacked property rights in every way it could. The appointment of three-term Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, if confirmed, would be worse than the bumbling of...

Jeffords has say on EPA director WASHINGTON -- Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., will be given a public platform to condemn the Bush administration's recent controversial changes to air pollution laws during the impending confirmation hearing of a new Environmental Protection Agency chief. As the ranking minority member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Jeffords is cast as the lead foil to Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, President Bush's nomination to succeed Christine Todd Whitman as EPA administrator. Jeffords, a Republican Party defector rewarded by the Democrats with their top spot on the environment committee, led the chorus of Democrats...

"And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." — Genesis 1:28 As Gov. Mike Leavitt's nomination Monday to head the Environmental Protection Agency ignited scrutiny of his past policymaking, what has yet to be publicly examined is the impact that his religious faith may have on his environmental views. His stand on issues that pit human development of natural resources such as oil, gas, timber and...

<p>Gov. Mike Leavitt, Utah Republican, is the White House's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing Christine Todd Whitman, the first top administrator to separate from the Bush administration.</p> <p>"Mike Leavitt will come to the EPA with a strong environmental record, a strong desire to improve what has taken place in the last three decades," President Bush said yesterday while introducing Mr. Leavitt before a fund-raising dinner in Aurora, Colo.</p>

SALT LAKE CITY - Scott M. Matheson Jr., oldest son of a former Utah governor and dean of the University of Utah law school, is laying the groundwork for a run for governor in 2004. "I'm sensing the voters of Utah are willing to look at someone new, willing to make a change," the 49-year-old Democrat said Tuesday. Third-term Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt has not said whether he plans to run for re-election. Democrats have not held the top office in solidly Republican Utah since 1985, when Matheson's father left office. Scott Matheson Jr. managed his father's election campaigns. His...