Senate EPW Committee advances nominees for FHWA, EPA and Army Corps despite partisan objections

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on May 21 voted to favorably report three presidential nominees: Sean McMaster to lead the Federal Highway Administration, John Buster Rood to serve as an assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, and Adam Tell to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.

Chair Shelley Moore Capito, who presided over the business meeting, called for votes after opening remarks and asked members who wished to speak on the nominations to do so after the roll calls. "I urge my colleagues to support these nominees," Capito said during her opening statement.

Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse said he would back Sean McMaster and Adam Tell but opposed John Buster Rood, delivering an extended critique of EPA policy under the current administration. "The Environmental Protection Agency has become the polluter protection agency," Whitehouse said, calling recent actions "a swamp of corruption" and criticizing a Republican reconciliation bill provision he said would suspend a methane fee for 10 years.

Whitehouse also said the Department of Transportation had paused implementation of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program established in the bipartisan infrastructure bill and noted DOT had told his staff draft guidance…