Clinton Nominee Scales Back Promise of 8 Million New Jobs : Cabinet: Tyson, choice for chief economic adviser, calls the figure only a goal. The Senate approves 15 top-level appointments.

Continuing a gradual retreat from President Clinton’s expansive campaign pledges, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, Clinton’s choice to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Thursday that the new Administration is unlikely to be able to create the 8 million jobs Clinton promised last fall.

Tyson told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that the jobs pledge was merely “a goal” and indicated that it almost certainly cannot be met.

Clinton said in September that his plan to spend as much as $80 billion on roads, bridges and high-technology projects “conservatively” would create 8 million new jobs over the next four years. The public works program is being scaled back and with it predictions of the number of new jobs to be created.

Tyson also said that, although reducing the deficit is a priority of the new Administration, the budget for the coming fiscal year likely will not cut the deficit and actually might increase it because of the Administration’s desire to invest in job training, public works and other new spending programs.

The Senate panel did not vote Thursday on Tyson’s appointment but committee aides said her confirmation is assured.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, the Senate moved swiftly to put the majority of Clinton’s executive branch team in place, approving 15 top-level appointments, even as two nominees ran into tough questioning at their confirmation hearings.

On the second day of Clinton’s honeymoon with Congress, Republicans joined Democrats in quickly approving by voice vote 10 more members of the new President’s Cabinet, including Ronald H. Brown as secretary of commerce, Donna Shalala as secretary of health and human services, Hazel O’Leary as secretary of energy, Richard W. Riley as education secretary and Bruce Babbitt as Interior secretary.

Five sub-Cabinet nominees also were confirmed without dissent or debate, including former Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“They’ve met the test . . . . I’m pleased to cooperate with the incoming Administration,” Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said of the new Cabinet officers.

The rapid round of approvals left only Tyson and Director of Central Intelligence-designate R. James Woolsey awaiting confirmation. The nomination of Atty. Gen.-designate Zoe Baird was withdrawn early today.

With the withdrawal of Baird--who had encountered problems over her hiring of a Peruvian couple in the United States illegally as household help--the remaining nominees appear to be headed for easy confirmations early next week.

Brown’s nomination for the Commerce Department post was mildly controversial because of his business connections and lobbying activities, but his confirmation by the full Senate was assured when the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee unanimously approved his nomination earlier in the day.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said Brown had resolved all Republican reservations about his nomination and could now “serve without a cloud” as commerce chief.

Although former Arizona Gov. Babbitt came in for tough questioning for a second day by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Republicans concerned about his ties to environmentalist groups, his approval was considered so certain that Committee Chairman J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) did not bother to wait for the vote to congratulate him on winning confirmation.

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), who represents a Western state where land issues have often conflicted with environmental priorities, demanded that Babbitt explain a quotation attributed to him in a publication distributed by the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental lobbying group that Babbitt headed for three years. “We must identify our enemies and drive them into oblivion,” the quotation read.

In response, Babbitt acknowledged his role as an environmental advocate but promised that as Interior secretary he would balance conservation and natural resource exploitation.

Although he avoided taking specific positions on many issues, Babbitt endorsed the Endangered Species Act but said he thinks it could be “more thoughtfully applied” to minimize its economic impact.

Along with Babbitt, Shalala, O’Leary and Riley, Cabinet nominees confirmed Thursday by the Senate included former Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.) as agriculture secretary, Harvard professor Robert B. Reich as labor secretary, former San Antonio Mayor Henry G. Cisneros as secretary of housing and urban development, former Disabled American Veterans head Jesse Brown as veterans affairs secretary and former Denver Mayor Federico Pena as transportation secretary.

Along with Panetta, other key confirmations included former Florida environmental official Carol Browner as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, banker Roger Altman as deputy Treasury secretary, Clinton campaign Chairman Mickey Kantor as U.S. trade representative and budget scholar Alice Rivlin as deputy director of OMB.