Marcus Peacock has been nominated to be the Deputy Administrator for EPA, which is the second highest ranking position at EPA. This is a very important position for both the management as well as developing and implementing the overall policy direction of the Agency. I am pleased that we have a person of quality to fill that position. Mr. Peacock has been serving in the Bush Administration for more than four years as the Associate Director for Natural Resource Programs at OMB. Prior to that, Marcus worked for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as subcommittee Staff Director. In that position, he worked very closely with this Committee on a number of issues including being the House lead staffer in conference on the Disaster Mitigation Act, an Inhofe bill. That turned out very well, so I am particularly pleased to see him here today.

Susan Bodine comes before us as the President’s nominee to be the EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. There should be little doubt of Ms. Bodine’s credentials to head this office as she comes from a strong policy background dealing with the issues in this program office, including Superfund. She is currently Staff Director and Senior Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. As most on this committee know by now, the number one Superfund site in the entire country is in Oklahoma – known as Tar Creek. We have made substantial progress at Tar Creek since I became Chairman - and much of that progress was due to getting the federal agencies under EPW’s jurisdiction to finally work together to remove the obstacles that had stalled clean up efforts. The lack of cooperation within the Federal family prior to my Chairmanship was simply unacceptable. I will be counting on Ms. Bodine to continue that cooperation and ensure that those obstacles that had prevented action from occurring at Tar Creek do not reappear. I look forward to working with her on this.

Grant Nakayama has been nominated to serve as the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. Mr. Nakayama is a Partner for Environmental Law and Product Safety at the Kirkland & Ellis law firm here in Washington, DC. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law, where he teaches environmental law. He was previously with the United States Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program where he served in positions including Chief of Quality Control and as a Chief Engineer.

Again, I want to welcome each of these very qualified nominees here today. It is my intent to have a business meeting next week to report these nominees, and I would hope that they could all be confirmed and in place prior to the August recess.