Open Door

The Senate has confirmed President Obama's picks to head environment programs for the Navy and Air Force. The action follows the lifting of holds Republicans had placed on the nominees over a battle to secure Navy funding for an environmental health study and the Air Force's aerial tanker program, Defense Environment Alert reports today. Specifically:

The Senate voted March 4 to confirm Jackalyne Pfannenstiel as assistant secretary of the Navy for installations and environment, and Terry Yonkers to be assistant secretary for the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics. Obama nominated Pfannenstiel Dec. 3, but Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) had placed a hold on her nomination out of frustration over a dispute about funding a mortality study and health survey related to the effects of drinking water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC.

Burr admonished the Navy for dragging its feet on funding the federal Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) studies. The Navy late last month agreed to fund the studies, and a Senate source at the time said Burr was waiting to see funding actually transferred to ATSDR before lifting the holds on Pfannenstiel and another Navy nominee (Defense Environment Alert, March 2).

Yonkers, who was nominated Aug. 3, had been caught in a hold that Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) had originally placed on over 70 of the administration’s nominees in an attempt to sway the Air Force on its next-generation aerial tanker program known as KC-X. While Shelby lifted his "blanket hold" on many nominees last month, Yonkers remained under it because his slot is directly related to the KC-X program. A spokesman for Shelby’s office did not respond to an inquiry on Yonkers' hold.