The slowdown in approval of President Obama’s economic team, both at Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisers, is getting a lot of attention today. But let’s not forget that two senior White House science adviser-designates are still going nowhere: John Holdren, named to lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Jane Lubchenco, named to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, remain in limbo.
The likely source of the culprit would seem to be the Senate Commerce Committee, although that panel approved the nominations last month. “I am unaware of any GOP Commerce Committee members who are raising questions,” one Senate source said via email.
But other sources pointed me to Commerce — so just in case, I reached out to all the Republicans on that committee. The next likely source of the slowdown would be GOPers on the Senate environment committee, particularly given Holdren’s progressive views on climate change, but Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R-OK) office did not return a request for comment on the nominations.
Rest assured, however, that we’ll stay on this story.
Late Update: A source close to the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that there is, right now, no hold from Menendez on the nominees. It remains unclear when the hold evaporated — sometime between the WaPo‘s original report on Tuesday and today, it seems. But either way, the nominees would have been quickly cleared if Menendez were the only original objector. So the search goes on…
