Good morning and welcome to all of our nominees. Mr. Johnson, you are before this Committee again, this time as the President’s nominee for the most important environmental position in this government - Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. While you have an obligation to serve the Bush Administration, your greater responsibility will be as the guardian for the environment for all Americans. The EPA needs a strong, independent leader who is not afraid to speak his mind and bring balance to the Bush Administration’s attempts to move our nation backwards on environmental protection. As a scientist, you have a responsibility to put policy before politics, to put public health before corporate profits, and to put the long term needs of the environment before the short term needs of special interests. As a longtime EPA employee, you bring tremendous experience and expertise to this job. The question today is whether you have the fortitude to stand up against powerful interests to protect our air, our water and our lands. The EPA Administrator should not be a rubber-stamp for White House policies. You have a great opportunity to bring a fresh approach to the EPA, one I must say is badly needed. As you know, I, along with other members of this Committee have a number of outstanding information requests that EPA has yet to fulfill. Some of these requests date back to 2001. The Administration's continued obstruction and stone-walling on these legitimate requests has made it impossible for us in Congress to do any sort of oversight or to craft consensus legislation. The Agency, at the instruction of the White House, has persisted in obstructing our legitimate inquiry into facts and analysis that this Committee needs to do its job. I hope we can get your commitment today to help us get this information soon. You also signed the now infamous mercury rule. That was a serious mistake that I and many Senators of both parties advised you and former Administrator Leavitt against doing. The Bush Administration relied on the notion that the US is only a small part of the global problem so we shouldn't bother taking aggressive action domestically. Somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of the mercury that falls on Vermont comes from U.S. sources. That is not insignificant. And, it is grossly hypocritical when U.S. representatives at international meetings have blocked more aggressive action on the global level. Our once-prominent leadership on environmental matters has become a joke around the world. Mr. Johnson, you have quite a job ahead to restore the Agency's credibility here and abroad. If it can be done. I would also like to welcome back to the Committee John Paul Woodley, the President’s nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works and look forward to your statement. Mr. Luna, Major General Riley, Brigadier General Grisoli, and Mr. Rappoport, I believe this is a first time for each of you before this Committee and I look forward to your statements as well. Thank you.