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Key EPA positions continued to be filled this month as David Ross, President Trump’s nominee to head the EPA’s Office of Water, was confirmed by the full Senate on December 14.  Ross, who previously served as the director of the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Environmental Protection Unit, won confirmation by a unanimous voice vote.

Meanwhile the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee approved a pair of slightly more controversial Trump Administration nominees on November 29, as Andrew Wheeler, nominee for EPA’s deputy administrator, and Kathleen Hartnett White, nominee for director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), each advanced on party-line votes.

EPW members’ reactions to the nominees were predictably partisan, with Republicans generally praising their experience and Democrats warning that their views of Hartnett White in particular could put public health and the environment at risk.  Both nominations will now be put before the full Senate, but there is no timetable for final votes amid ongoing Democratic opposition.