Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993 TAG: 9301220056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
SENATE UNITES TO APPROVE 15 NOMINATED BY CLINTON
The Senate confirmed 15 more top officers in President Clinton's administration with scant resistance Thursday, hurrying action to give the new president a fast start.Ten Cabinet officers - including Ron Brown as commerce secretary, Bruce Babbitt at Interior, Donna Shalala as health secretary and Robert Reich at Labor - were authorized by voice vote.
Babbitt's vote came after a Senate panel had pressed him on his environmental ties, then approved him 20-0. Earlier, the Senate approved eight Cabinet secretaries in a single voice vote.
Five more top officials - including Rep. Leon Panetta of California to head the Office of Management and Budget - were approved, too.
The swift action, on top of the first Cabinet confirmations hours after Clinton was inaugurated Wednesday, left only two Clinton appointments hanging.
Zoe Baird, the nominee for attorney general, was the only one facing serious controversy - over her hiring of illegal aliens and failing, until her nomination, to pay Social Security taxes for them. Despite growing public and congressional opposition, she won a renewed commitment from Clinton's spokesman and still was favored to be approved eventually.
Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Clinton's choice to head the Council of Economic Advisers, was being readied for confirmation by the Senate Banking Committee.
There was little Republican opposition. Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., said of the nominees, "They've met the test. I'm pleased to cooperate with . . . the incoming administration."
During debate on Brown, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the former chairman of the Democratic Party had sold his stock and ended his association with several companies, resolving potential conflict-of-interest concerns. Those steps "helped remove a cloud that might have been hovering over his stewardship" at the Commerce Department, Lott said.
Other Cabinet secretaries approved Thursday were: Rep. Mike Espy, D-Miss., as agriculture secretary; former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros as secretary of housing and urban development; Minnesota utility executive Hazel O'Leary as energy secretary; former South Carolina Gov. Richard Riley as education secretary; Disabled American Veterans executive Jesse Brown as veterans affairs secretary; and former Denver Mayor Federico Pena as transportation secretary.
Also confirmed were Florida environmental official Carol Browner to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, investment banker Roger Altman to be deputy treasury secretary, budget scholar Alice Rivlin to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, and lawyer and former Clinton campaign chairman Mickey Kantor to be U.S. trade representative.