Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats vowed to push through a White House nominee for a top Interior Department post while accusing Republicans -- led by Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Robert Bennett of Utah -- of obstructing President Barack Obama's agenda by objecting to the job candidate.

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Wednesday's vote failed 57-39 on whether the Senate should proceed with an official confirmation vote. All but two Republicans voted against the nominee, David Hayes, the first Obama administration appointee whom the Senate has failed to confirm. Democrats said Wednesday that they will get Hayes confirmed -- and they now know they have the numbers to do it.

Murkowski and Bennett had placed a hold on Hayes, objecting to the Obama administration's overall approach to Interior Department policies, especially the decision by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to withdraw oil and gas leases offered on 77 parcels of public land near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., forced a vote on Hayes, hoping to move the nomination forward, but he fell three votes short of the 60-vote tally needed to break the Bennett- and Murkowski-led filibuster. Reid complained that Republicans were holding up efforts by Salazar to engage in serious restructuring after a series of Bush-era scandals within the Interior Department.

"Ask anyone who knows him, and they will tell you that among the many skills David Hayes brings to the table is his ability to work cooperatively and in a bipartisan fashion on the most complex issues," Reid said. "I wish our Republican colleagues would show the same spirit on at least the simple ones, like confirming such a clearly qualified candidate for such a critical job."

Just two Republicans voted for Hayes: Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who is often a swing vote on party-line issues, and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who knows Hayes from when they worked to solve water rights issues in the Southwest. Reid also voted against moving the nomination forward, a procedural move that allows him to bring the vote up for reconsideration.

Three Democrats weren't present who would have voted for Hayes: Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who is ill, and Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. Kerry was at a funeral in Massachusetts; a spokeswoman for Mikulski said she was absent to "work on health care issues."

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, voted with Democrats to move forward with an official vote on Hayes, saying that both Salazar and his proposed deputy have made it clear they consider Alaska a priority.

Deborah Williams, who worked with Hayes when she oversaw Alaska issues for the Interior Department during the Clinton administration, called him "an excellent public servant."

"He should be working for the Department of Interior and the nation right now," said Williams, who now runs Alaska Conservation Solutions in Anchorage. "This is just a very regrettable vote. This is a very counterproductive vote, too. If the Senate wants the Department of Interior to be doing its job, it needs its whole team in place."

Murkowski said her objections to Hayes are about ensuring Republicans who have questions about the Obama administration's direction on energy policy will get answers. Hayes held the same post in the Clinton administration and served on Obama's transition team.

"This is not a personal matter, anybody out to get Mr. Hayes, if you will," said Murkowski, who's particularly concerned about an Interior Department decision to wait 180 days before acting on the Bush-era five-year plan for oil and gas exploration on the nation's outer continental shelf. "This is really about what is happening within the department. All of these various actions within the Department of Interior, within a very short time period, cause great concern about the direction of our nation's energy policy."

But Salazar himself, who was a U.S. senator from Colorado before he was appointed to head the Interior Department, called Wednesday's vote one of "bitter obstructionism."

"It may be uncomfortable for some to watch us have to clean up mess after mess -- from corruption to lawbreaking -- that is the previous administration's legacy at Interior, but to cast a vote against such a qualified and fine person is the height of cynicism," he said in a statement.

"We have answered every question and worked to find common ground on difficult issues, but the American people rightfully want change from the Obama administration and from the Department of the Interior. We will deliver that change," he said. "The American people will know, once again, that the Department of the Interior is wisely managing their treasured landscapes and their natural resources on their behalf."

Salazar on Wednesday acknowledged that the Republican-led effort to block Hayes was tied directly to the decision to withdraw the Utah leases, but offered no apology for the move.

"The decision we made on the Utah sale was correct. I have no regrets," he said during a House Interior Appropriations subcommittee meeting, even as an aide handed him a note alerting him of the outcome of the Hayes vote.

Hayes is up for the job as the No. 2 Interior Department official. The deputy serves as the chief operating officer of a federal department that has 67,000 employees and an annual budget of $16 billion. It's of particular concern in Alaska, where the Interior Department has wide oversight over 155 million acres of federal lands under the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Salazar sent a last-minute letter to Murkowski and Bennett on Wednesday in an effort to persuade them, along with other Republicans, to change their votes. In his letter, Salazar told Murkowski he's committed to a "balanced agenda" at the Interior Department, which promotes the "responsible extraction of valuable energy supplies from our public resources, but that protects the public interest, that is based on sound science and that complies fully with the law."

The hold is purely politics, said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the majority whip.

"This isn't about the nominee," Durbin said, "this is about slowing down the assembling of President Obama's team to bring real change to Washington."

McClatchy correspondent Les Blumenthal contributed to this report.

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