McCarthy, Perez confirmed as heads of EPA & Labor Dept.
After filibuster dispute is settled, Senate finally gets to work
A Congressional bottleneck that had been going on for years finally got some resolution last week when Senators voted to confirm Gina McCarthy as head of the EPA and Thomas Perez as secretary of Labor.
The confirmation process became embroiled in a controversy over Senate filibuster rules in which Democrats threatened to eliminate the minority party’s ability to block executive branch nominations. After a procedural vote on Wednesday in which Republicans failed to muster enough votes to sustain a filibuster, an agreement was reached that averted a change.