Okay, just a follow-up article from today's SB paper on the whole EPA pesticide study and then we're putting Raidgate to rest. I like this one, though. My editor back in SB added that second graf, about how the Senate uses a hold (replacing something less-than-accurate that I had... Whoops. Shit.)

I'll figure out this whole "federal government" thing one day....

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2 senators hold EPA nomination, faulting program

4/8/05
By DICKIE CRONKITE
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT


Senators block nomination of EPA chief


WASHINGTON -- California Sen. Barbara Boxer teamed up with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson on Thursday to block the nomination of Stephen Johnson as EPA administrator, faulting Mr. Johnson for not ending a program Ms. Boxer called "immoral and unjust."

The senators, both Democrats, are using a "hold," an informal practice that keeps the nomination from reaching the Senate floor for a vote.

The move comes one day after a Senate hearing in which Ms. Boxer challenged Mr. Johnson to cancel a controversial EPA study in Duval County, Fla., examining the effects of pesticides on infants and young children.

"I gave him a great opportunity to cancel a program," said Ms. Boxer. "If this program is canceled then I would lift my hold.

"It doesn't mean I support him. There's lots of other issues," she added.

At the Wednesday hearing, Mr. Johnson said he had suspended the EPA's Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study, or CHEERS, and placed it under internal review.

The EPA also removed a downloadable brochure from its Web site advertising the study. The brochure stated that eligible participants were families with children less than 1 year old, and whose homes were routinely sprayed with pesticides.

It promised compensation of up to $970, as well as the video camcorder used in the study, a T-shirt and a bib in exchange for a two-year commitment. Mr. Nelson characterized the Jacksonville, Fla., neighborhood where the study would take place as "low-income minority."

CHEERS was partially funded by a $2 million grant to the EPA from the American Chemistry Council, a lobby for the U.S. chemical industry, according to documents given by the organization.

In a statement Thursday, the American Chemistry Council said it "continues to strongly support the study because of the great importance of increasing understanding of the exposures of young children to pesticides and other chemicals they naturally encounter in their daily lives."

"It seems to me when the industry wants something, they get it from this administration," Ms. Boxer said. "This is yet another classic case in point."

She held up a can of Raid pesticide at one point and read from the warning label. "This can of Raid is more ethical than the EPA," she said.

Under informal rules of the Senate, Mr. Johnson's bid to become head of the EPA can't be voted on until Ms. Boxer and Mr. Nelson lift their hold.

An EPA representative could not be reached for comment.


Dickie Cronkite writes from Washington, D.C., for Medill News Service. E-mail him at *******@newspress.com.