The Senate this week again failed to take any action on the nomination of Patrick McDonnell to serve as Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.

Gov. Wolf nominated him for this position January 3 and his paperwork was complete the week of January 16. 

The nomination is in the Senate Rules and Executive Nominations Committee and the normal process is to have the nomination reported out and re-referred to the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee for consideration.

McDonnell first became Acting Secretary on May 20, 2016 and was formally nominated for the post by Gov. Wolf on September 21, 2016. 

This is the only cabinet nomination now before the Senate, although there are two other agencies with Acting Secretaries-- the departments of Aging and soon Revenue.

The Senate Rules and Executive Nominations Committee has a meeting scheduled for March 27 to consider certain nominations, so we’ll see what happens.

The Senate has until May 10 to act on the nomination or it stands approved.

[Posted: March 24, 2017]

3/27/2017