Nominee for EPA No. 2 spot withdraws
By JOSH GERSTEIN
3/25/09
politico.com
President Barack Obama's nominee to be the No. 2 official at the Environmental Protection Agency, Jon Cannon, withdrew Wednesday after it was disclosed that he was on the board of a nonprofit group faulted for mishandling federal grant money.
“Today I am voluntarily removing my name from consideration to be Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency," Cannon said in a statement released by EPA. "It has come to my attention that America’s Clean Water Foundation, where I once served on the board of directors, has become the subject of scrutiny. While my service on the board of that now-dissolved organization is not the subject of the scrutiny, I believe the energy and environmental challenges facing our nation are too great to delay confirmation for this position, and I do not wish to present any distraction to the agency.”
A 2007 EPA inspector general's report on the foundation alleged a variety of irregularities involving $25 million in federal grants to assess water quality problems, including those at farms and pork processing facilities. The problems with accounting, improper cash advances and similar violations stretched from 1998 to 2005, according to the report. The foundation dissolved in 2006 and all directors resigned, the report said.
Cannon's nomination was formally sent to the Senate on March 12. During the Clinton Administration, he served as EPA's general counsel and as an assistant administrator of the agency. Since 1998, Cannon has been a professor of environmental law at the University of Virginia.
“I’m disappointed that Jon Cannon will be unable to serve as deputy administrator, and I thank him for his many years of dedication to the EPA," sadi the agency's newly confirmed administrator, Lisa Jackson, said. |
