STATEMENT OF SENATOR JEFFORDS

EPW COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS HEARING

JANUARY 24, 2002

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for being here. We have 3 nominees for positions within the Environmental Protection Agency here this afternoon.

They are:

Ms. Linda Morrison Combs, nominated to be Chief Financial Officer;

Mr. J. Paul Gilman, nominated to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development; and

Mr. Morris Winn, nominated to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Administration and Resources Management.

I look forward to hearing from each of you and want to commend you for your willingness to commit to public service. Each of you brings a great deal of experience and expertise to these positions and I hope we will be working together to assure the protection of our environment.

I would like to let everyone know how we are going to proceed this afternoon, then I will recognize Senator Smith for an opening statement.

All of you will come to the witness table. Before giving your statement, if you would please introduce any family members with you today. Each of you will be recognized to present your statement. You may summarize if you would like. Your full statement will be included in the record.

We will save questions until each of you has finished your statement. After all members have had a chance to ask questions, I will conclude the hearing by asking each of you 2 obligatory questions.

For those Committee members who are unable to be here today or have additional questions, we will forward those questions to you. As soon as the Committee receives all of the responses, we will act on your nominations. My hope is we will be able to do that early next week.