Acting Administrators Named at EPA

President Bush has decided to name Marianne Lamont Horinko, who now oversees the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program, as acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA said Thursday.

Bush also has picked Stephen Johnson, now in charge of the agency’s pesticides program, to be acting deputy administrator, said EPA spokeswoman Lisa Harrison.

Horinko, an assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, succeeds former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, who resigned June 27.

Johnson, assistant administrator in charge of the EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, succeeds Linda Fisher, a former chemical company vice president whose last day at the agency is today.

Horinko and Johnson will take over their new duties Saturday.

Both appointments are temporary.

The White House has been seeking a permanent successor to Whitman since she announced in May that she would be leaving the administration after 2 1/2 years as Bush’s point person on environmental issues.

While several names have appeared and disappeared from lists of candidates, Whitman said she had the impression that Bush might wait until fall to replace her.

Whitman said in a brief interview that Bush’s selections of Horinko and Johnson were wise choices.

“They’re bringing a deep understanding of the agency,” said Whitman, reached at her home in New Jersey.

“It doesn’t indicate there’s going to be any dramatic shift there.”

Whitman said Horinko proved herself to the White House through her handling of an unusual roster of duties since the fall of 2001.

“She’s been put into very high-profile positions from 9/11. They’ve seen her work through those things,” Whitman said.

But Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California said Horinko has been the point person in EPA’s refusal to respond to lawmakers’ questions about Bush’s environmental programs.

“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that this administration would choose an individual to head the EPA who has spent the last two years stonewalling Congress,” Boxer said.

Horinko supervised the on-scene emergency coordinators who were sent to help assess the environmental health risks and cleanup after the World Trade Center collapse in New York City, where the debris left thousands complaining of lung, ear, nose and throat prob- lems.

She also directed EPA’s three-month decontamination of Capitol Hill offices and examination of 10,000 samples from 26 buildings after the October 2001 anthrax attack stemming from a contaminated letter opened in the office of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

And this year, emergency responders from her office played a leading role in the recovery of debris that could provide clues to what caused the space shuttle Columbia’s destruction on Feb. 1.

Before her current job at the EPA, Horinko was president of Clay Associates Inc., a public policy firm that deals with hazardous waste issues.

From 1989 to 1993, she worked as a legal advisor in the EPA office she now supervises.

Johnson is a career EPA employee who has held several top-level jobs in the agency.