Bush Nominates Environmental Protection Agency Veteran to Head Agency
President George W. Bush has turned to a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency to be the agencys next administrator. If confirmed by the Senate, Stephen L. Johnson will be the first EPA chief who has risen through the ranks to the top job.
In announcing his choice March 4, President Bush noted that Johnson knows the EPA from the ground up. In his 24 years at the agency, Johnson has served as deputy director of the Office of Pesticide Programs and later as assistant administrator of the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. He served as a deputy administrator during the tenure of two former EPA administrators, Christine Todd Whitman and Mike Leavitt, both former governors. Johnson has been acting administrator since Jan. 26, 2005, following Leavitts nomination to head the Health and Human Services Dept. Earlier in his career he worked at Hazelton Laboratories, and Litton Bionetics, Inc.