EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt Nominated to Head HHS

President Bush nominated Mike Leavitt, the current head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to become Secretary of Health and Human Services. "I feel a sense of understandable regret when I contemplate leaving the Environmental Protection Agency," Leavitt said in accepting the nomination. "It is an agency filled with dedicated people for whom I feel great affection and a sense of shared mission to protect human health." Leavitt's nomination requires Senate confirmation. The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to meet on January 19, 2005 to consider Leavitt's nomination.

Prior to leading the EPA, Leavitt served as Utah's 14th governor during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Leavitt graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics and business from Southern Utah University. He also served as president and chief executive officer of a regional insurance firm. Leavitt is married to Jacalyn S. Leavitt; they are the parents of five children. For more information, please contact Ingrida Lusis, ASHA's Director of Health Care Regulatory Advocacy, via e-mail at ilusis@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4482.