Confirmation Roundup

While most of the noise on Capitol Hill was coming from attorney general-designate John Ashcroft's confirmation hearing, most of President-elect Bush's other Cabinet selections, including retired Gen. Colin Powell and New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, faced far less contentious Senate hearings.

Powell, the hero of the Gulf War and Bush's pick for secretary of state, is expected to be easily confirmed by the Foreign Relations Committee Thursday. Whitman, though, got some tough questions on her environmental record as senators, including New York's Hillary Clinton, took on her nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Confirmation hearings for Treasury nominee Paul O'Neill and HUD candidate Mel Martinez also took place Thursday. Meanwhile, protests from environmental organizations continue against the nomination of Gale Norton for Interior Secretary.

Clear Sailing For Powellcolor>

Received with all the respect of a folk hero, Secretary of State nominee Colin Powell told his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that the Bush administration will move full-speed ahead with a nationwide defense against missile attack.

In the process, Powell said a landmark arms control treaty signed with the Soviet Union in 1972 probably will have to be changed to make way for the controversial and futuristic program.

Brushing aside reminders by Sens. Joseph R. Biden, D-Del., and Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., that allies and others are skeptical about the project, the retired four-star general said, "When people see something new come along they are terrified, but if it is the right thing to do, you do it anyway."

"In the end of the day, it will benefit the world," he said confidently.

Taking a firm stand on another unsettled issue, Powell said the Bush administration would not ask the Senate to ratify a treaty President Clinton signed New Year's Eve to create the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.

Reflecting concerns in the Pentagon and among congressional Republicans, Clinton had recommended that the treaty not be ratified until the United States is satisfied its personnel abroad would not be taken to court in frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions.

The proposed court, supported by human rights advocates, could be set up if 60 nations ratify the treaty. Powell told the senators not to "stand on their tippy-toes" waiting for the treaty to be submitted.

Soldiers and other Americans could be faced with prosecution without the protection of their rights under the U.S. Constitution, he said.

Committee members took turns praising Powell, the first black nominated to be secretary of state, some assuring him he would be confirmed unanimously. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes. D-Md., called the hearing a "love-fest and Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., introduced Powell as "in many respect a role model for generations of Americans."

Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said President-elect Bush "hit a home run. ... I can imagine no better qualified person to serve as the first U.S. secretary of state in the 21st century."

The committee scheduled a vote on the nomination Thursday.

Powell called his selection to head the State Department "miraculous" and said "it would have been unthinkable" when he was a young officer.

In the seven years since he retired as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell has amassed a sizable fortune, through lucrative corporate connections and high speaking fees.

In testifying, he pledged the Bush administration would be ready to help "every country that has a desire to be free" and that other nations would be judged partly on whether they value human rights.

"It should be part of our dialogue," Powell said. "We should constantly press them on this issue."

Dismissing any suggestion the Bush administration might pull back from an international role, Powell said, "There is no inclination whatsoever to have our nation withdraw from the world into a fortress of protectionism or an island of isolation."

He struck a cautious stance on U.S. peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, saying the vulnerability of troops must be considered when they are deployed, whether for peace operations or potential conflict.

He said the Bush administration would take a close look at U.S. commitments in the region "with the hope of reducing our troop levels there over time and in consultation with our allies."

On another key front, Powell said the new administration would move ahead but "without any sense of haste" to establish normal relations with North Korea. "We are open to a continued process of engagement with the North, so long as it addresses political, economic and security concerns," he said.

Elsewhere, he cautioned Russia not to act in a "heavy-handed way" toward neighboring former Soviet republics and said he would try to get a political process started with Sudan even while the African country treats its people "in such a deplorable way."

Powell denounced Iraq as "a failed state with a failed leader" and said Bush would work with allied leaders to tighten sanctions against President Saddam Hussein's government,

Dismissing arguments that economic pressure hurts Iraqi children, Powell said a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon in Saddam's hands "threatens the children not only of Iraq but the entire region."

He told senators that if they are tempted to impose sanctions against a country, "please stop, count to 10, call me and we'll talk about it."

In another area, Powell called China "not our enemy" and said "our challenge ito keep it that way." In the Middle East, he said the Bush administration "will do our best" to move the peace process forward.

The nominee stood firm on Bush's plan to construct an extensive defense against missile attack, which Clinton declined to do partly because there was no certainty it would work.

Even if North Korea agreed to freeze its missile program, "we should continue to move ahead as aggressively as possible," Powell said.

And, Powell said, the 1972 treaty with the Soviet Union that banned nationwide missile defenses so that Russia would be disinclined to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, was "probably no longer relevant to our new strategic framework."

Powell's financial disclosure forms show he has amassed at least $27.3 million since retiring from military service seven years ago, mostly from speaking fees that last year alone brought him $6.7 million.

Some Questions For Whitmancolor>

If Gov. Christie Whitman had had her way for the last seven years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have been doing things differently.

Now on the verge of becoming the agency's leader, Whitman will be in position to make the agency do things her way.

In remarks before the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, which is considering her nomination, Whitman called for a "new era of cooperation" among state and federal governments, business and advocates in protecting the environment.

"Government cannot do it alone," she said.

She made it clear to the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday that her New Jersey Statehouse experience will influence her approach.

"Certainly what I would bring to the office would be the strength and the skills I have learned as governor of a very complex state," Whitman said.

Some of those skills and strengths may come from her disputes with the EPA over such things as the measurement and reduction of air and water pollution. For instance, Whitman in the past year has been quick to blame the EPA for forcing her into one of her administration's most glaring embarrassments, the disastrous debut of a new auto emissions test in December 1999.

Whitman has taken pains to make everyone aware she knows what it feels like to be regulated.

On Wednesday, she said, "We need some innovative ways to help those who have been designated as part of the problem to move forward and clean their air and do so in a way that continues to be economically competitive."

"We need to do so in a way that reaches out to those on the receiving end of those regulations," she said.

Last month, when President-elect Bush announced Whitman's nomination in Austin, Texas, she said that as a governor she had seen "what it's like to be on the receiving end of mandates from Washington."

An in her budget address early in her tenure in 1995, Whitman defended her own environmental funding cuts while lambasting the EPA.

"We should not spend huge sums of money to protect the environment when we can get the same results at a fraction of the cost," she said. "That is why I fought so hard in Washington to find a less expensive and more convenient way for New Jersey to follow the Clean Air Act. I didn't see why taxpayers had to shell out $781 million for an untried emissions testing system just because it had the EPA's seal of approval."

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said he fears Whitman will use buzz words like "voluntary compliance" to take the edge off EPA-ordered pollution controls.

He noted that the EPA has rebuked the Whitman administration for inadequate monitoring of water pollution and for not having enough water-testing stations.

"It is a 'don't test-don't tell' policy," he said, noting she closed the state's only environmental lab in 1996.

But Whitman is credited with a strong hazardous-waste cleanup program and with advancing an ocean water testing system that has become a national model, and so could be expected to vigorously pursue those practices federally.

Democratic senators like New Jersey freshman Jon Corzine reminded her Wednesday these goals could include the touchy job of pressing President-elect Bush for more funding, something Republicans in Congress consistently tried to deny President Clinton.

"In the Superfund program, we have in many respects worked very well together," said Rich Cahill, a spokesman for the EPA's Region II, which covers New Jersey.

"The honor or infamy of being the state having the most sites on the National Priorities List is a direct result of how aggressive they have been in pursuing their Superfund site problems," Cahill said. "They are the front line when it comes to identifying the sites."

Whitman's confirmation appeared all the more certain after Wednesday's cordial committee hearing at which even the temporary chairman, a Democrat, invited her to Nevada once she is on the job.

Several Democratic senators, though, expressed concern that the new administration might roll back environmental rules enacted in recent months, including one imposing tougher pollution controls on big trucks and a requirement for nearly sulfur-free diesel fuel.

She said she had "an obligation to review all the rules" pushed through in recent months. "We will do that in this case," she said when asked about the truck and diesel fuel regulations issued by the EPA just before Christmas. The petroleum industry has called the new diesel requirements too costly and perhaps impossible to meet without causing fuel shortages.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said he hoped Whitman "will not abandon and vigorously enforce" the new truck and diesel tandards. He said reductions in truck pollution "are critically needed" and had been considered and debated for years.

O'Neill Defends Tax Cutscolor>

At his hearing, Treasury Secretary-designate O'Neill defended President-elect Bush's tax cut plan, telling senators it would not threaten the budget surplus or trigger inflation. He confirmed that Bush will send Congress a broad package of tax cuts "in six weeks or so" and may ask that they be made retroactive to Jan. 1.

A former White House aide in the Ford administration who later was credited with turning around aluminum giant Alcoa as its chairman, O'Neill sailed through his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.

O'Neill, 65, told senators that Bush's tax cut would not threaten the budget surplus or trigger inflation, a concern raised by some analysts months ago, before the economic slowdown.

"If we're going to have a tax reduction ... I don't know why we wouldn't want it now," he said. "It won't hurt. We'll get ready for the next round of expansion in our economy."

O'Neill acknowledged that the Federal Reserve plays a crucial role in keeping the nation's $10 trillion economy on track through the raising or lower of short-term interest rates. "The first line of action is monetary policy," he said.

Worried that the economy was weakening and could slip into a recession, the Fed unexpectedly slashed interest rates on Jan. 3 by one-half a percentage point. Analysts expect additional rate cuts in the coming months.

"There's no doubt we are experiencing a slow down," O'Neill said.

O'Neill said Bush's tax plan would be submitted as legislation to Congress "in six weeks or so" after Bush takes office Saturday.

Bush is examining whether to make part of his 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax-cut package including across-the-board income tax rate reductions take effect in earlier years, as some Republicans are suggesting, O'Neill said. No decisions have been made, he said.

"What's the reason not to give the taxpayers back some of their money? I don't know that," O'Neill said.

O'Neill earned high marks from senators for both his government and business credentials. He is expected to win Senate confirmation Saturday and be on the job next week, said the committee chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said O'Neill will inherit both "a remarkably strong fiscal situation" and long-term challenges such as the solvency of Social Security and providing prescription drugs under Medicare. The tax cut, he suggested, might jeopardize those issues.

"We must prepare for it now. We cannot afford to dig ourselves into a fiscal hole as we did in the 1980s," Daschle said. "We cannot afford to return to the fiscal irresponsibility and weakness of time past."

O'Neill said "there is room to fit the president-elect's tax proposal" within the projected surplus even if economic growth continues to slow. O'Neill said he shared the goal of keeping the budget balanced and paying down publicly held debt.

Other Democrats said Bush's tax cut as proposed would likely do little to stimulate the economy because much of it would take effect in the later years. "You have to question whether that's going to have the impact desired," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

In other areas, O'Neill said he is "in favor of a strong dollar," a policy supported by the outgoing Clinton administration but opposed by some manufacturers because it makes U.S. goods more expensive to buy overseas.

O'Neill also offered support for the general concept of simplifying the tax code. "I think our tax system is not worthy of an advanced society." And while saying he is an unabashed advocate of free trade, O'Neill also said he will aggressively enforce trade laws.

On California's energy crisis, O'Neill said he was not sure what role, if any, the federal government should play.

A Little-Known Name For HUDcolor>

Cuban-born Mel Martinez may be little-known outside his home state of Florida, but he is headed for apparent confirmation as housing secretary. He assured senators on Wednesday that he would help more low-income Americans buy their own homes.

Martinez, 54, the chairman of the Orange County, Fla., government that includes Orlando, promised to strengthen the Department of Housing and Urban Development, an agency some Republicans have sought to eliminate, and to make it more responsive to the nation's housing needs.

Democrats and Republicans alike on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hailed Martinez, who fled from Cuba as a teen-ager, as an embodiment of the American dream and an excellent choice for the position.

"Mel Martinez fulfilled the promise of America," Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said, joining fellow Florida Democrat Bill Nelson in giving the nominee a glowing introduction.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who returns as chairman of the committee when President-elect Bush takes office on Saturday, said he planned to schedule a vote on Martinez as early as Monday.

Current Chairman Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., expressed his support for Martinez, an ally of Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and co-chairman of Bush's presidential campaign in Florida.

Unlike the acrimonious confirmation hearings for Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft several floors below, there was little hint of controversy in Martinez's two-hour hearing.

Martinez related how he was a "living testament to the promise of America," arriving at age 15 as a refugee speaking no English, living with foster parents until his parents could leave Cuba, and workng his way through Florida State Law School. "I came to America with a suitcase and the hope of a better life. I know the value of homeownership because I have witnessed its great power throughout my entire life," he said.

He said that as a member of the Orlando Housing Authority in the 1980s he fought for the rights of public housing tenants and pushed for construction of affordable housing for elderly and single mother low-income households.

As HUD secretary he said he would continue efforts to reform the agency, which in the past has been plagued by mismanagement, and would pursue various proposals to increase homeownership among minorities and low-income Americans.

Those include Bush's proposals to allow low-income families to use federal rental vouchers toward homeownership, provide tax credits to financial institutions that match the savings of low-income earners, and offer tax credits to encourage the construction and rehabilitation of single family homes in distressed communities.

He also said the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which some Republicans have sharply criticized, "has a very important role to play in community building." It requires banks to make loans in low-income and minority areas in which they operate.

Martinez praised the management reform efforts of Andrew Cuomo, the current HUD chief. The General Accounting Office, an investigative wing of Congress, issued a report Wednesday removing HUD's community development program from its list of programs at high risk for waste, fraud and abuse. HUD's single-family mortgage insurance and rental housing assistance programs remained on the list.

Martinez assured Democrats that he did not plan to reduce manpower at the agency, that he supported more physical inspections of federally owned property and that he would work to secure an adequate budget so that public housing can be available to those who need it. The HUD budget, about $30 billion this year, has been a target of GOP budget-cutters in the past.

Green Protests Surround Norton Nomination color>

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee opens hearings on Thursday into the nomination of Gale Norton for Interior Secretary. Her nomination is being strongly opposed by environmentalist groups including Greenpeace and the Sierra club.

Police arrested three Greenpeace protestors Thursday who climbed into a fifth story alcove at the Interior Department in Washington in protest against Gale Norton's nomination to run the Department.

The Sierra Club is running radio and television ads attacking Norton and the Environmental Working Group and the League of Conservation Voters is set to hold a news conference in the Capitol on Thursday protesting her nomination.

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