3 More Bush Nominees Win Swift Senate OK

The Senate confirmed three more top officials of the freshly minted Bush administration on Tuesday, including the man who will oversee the crafting of next year’s $1.9-trillion federal budget.

By one vote of 100 to 0, the Senate confirmed Mitch Daniels as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget; Mel Martinez as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Anthony J. Principi as Veterans Affairs secretary.

The debate lasted less than 20 minutes, underlining the lack of controversy over the three nominees.

10 Nominees Approved So Far

The vote brought to 10 the number of top-level appointees of President Bush that the Senate has approved since his Saturday inauguration.

Daniels, 51, has been a senior vice president for Eli Lilly and Co., the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant. Before that, he was a longtime Capitol Hill and White House aide and head of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

He will have to begin work immediately on Bush’s first budget. The administration proposes to issue an outline of Bush’s fiscal plans late next month, with a full-blown budget expected in April.

Martinez, 54, fled from Cuba as a teenager and became a local official in Orlando, Fla., rising to become chairman of Orange County, which includes Orlando. He has been praised by members of both parties after promising to increase homeownership among low-income Americans and promising to reform the agency, which has often been accused of waste and mismanagement.

Principi, 56, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, was deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs under Bush’s father, President George Bush, and later served as acting secretary. Principi has pledged to fight for more generous veteran benefits and to simplify the agency’s complex system of processing claims.

The Senate planned to vote today on the nomination of Tommy G. Thompson, the Wisconsin governor, to head the Department of Health and Human Services. His selection was being used by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) as an opportunity to debate whether the 1996 welfare overhaul was as successful as Thompson and others have claimed, but Thompson was expected to win easy approval.

“He’s more than up to the task,” said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

Thompson also appeared to have escaped any real backlash from Democrats angered by Bush’s decision Monday to bar U.S. funds to international family planning groups and his decision to order a review of the government’s approval of the RU-486 abortion pill.

Bush’s move was done as abortion foes gathered in Washington for the 28th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade--the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

Safety Concerns on RU-486 Stressed

Thompson has built a strong anti-abortion record and said during his confirmation hearings that he would review the abortion pill’s approval to ensure its safety.

During his confirmation hearings, Thompson emphasized that to make welfare reform work, government must spend more money on child care, health care, transportation and training.

Also expected to gain the Senate’s assent today were Elaine Chao as Labor secretary, Norman Y. Mineta as Transportation secretary and New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was expected today to approve the nomination of Gale A. Norton to be Interior secretary, with final Senate approval possible later in the week.