Confirmed

The Senate is often called a slow, deliberative body, but it can act quickly when it wants to. Early yesterday it appeared that the Senate Commerce Committee would not act on Michael Griffin’s nomination until a full committee markup session scheduled for today; indeed, at one point during the day Griffin’s name appeared on the agenda for the hearing among those nominations to be approved by the committee. However, the leadership of the committee “convinced their colleagues to approve the nomination quickly”, according to a committee press release, and got the nomination to the floor, where it was approved by the full Senate without opposition just before wrapping up business for the day Wednesday evening.

Ironically, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who pressed for the committee to expedite the nomination during Tuesday’s hearing, was not on the Senate floor when it voted on the nomination, according to the Houston Chronicle. (She did, though, issue a press release to “applaud” the confirmation.) With the nomination now confirmed, Griffin “is expected to be sworn in later this week”, according to a NASA statement Wednesday night.