Lubchenco
Jane Lubchenco and John Holdren were confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate Thursday night after being stalled since March 3, when their nominations were blocked by anonymous holds in the Senate for unrelated reasons. Lubchenco will serve as the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and John Holdren will take on the role of Science Adviser to President Obama. Throughout the ordeal, ScienceBlogger Mike Dunford was unrelenting in his efforts to bring this issue to the public's attention, contacting Capitol Hill to investigate the situation, reporting his…
President Obama's picks for science advisor (John Holdren) and NOAA administrator (Jane Lubchenco) are being blocked from receiving confirmation because of the anonymous holds of one or more Senators. Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority has been following the story for at least a week and writes today that:
As I've already said - possibly to the point of inducing tedium - the scientific community needs to keep pressure on the Senate. There are so many other things going on in Washington right now that this issue is not going to get much more attention from the traditional media than…
The confirmation of two of President Obama's top science advisers was delayed yesterday as several senators placed anonymous holds on what was expected to be a quick vote. John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, Obama's nominees to head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, respectively, were first blocked by a hold from Senator Robert Menendez (D–N.J.), for reasons unrelated to the nominees themselves. But new reports emerged later that Menendez was not the only senator to place a hold. John D. Rockefeller IV (D–W.Va.),…