Senate Finally Approves Gina McCarthy for EPA

Zhang Jun/Xinhua/ZUMAPRESS

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It only took 137 days, but on Thursday Senate Republicans allowed the confirmation of Gina McCarthy as head of the Environmental Protection Agency to proceed.

President Obama nominated McCarthy back in March. But after a Republican boycott of the first committee vote on her appointment and a two-month-long filibuster threat from Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), McCarthy finally got a Senate vote.

Her nomination was approved 59 to 40.

Before serving as the assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation during Obama’s first term, McCarthy worked for Republican and Democratic governors, which made the continued opposition to her nomination even more puzzling.

 

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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