Bolden/Garver nomination hearing scheduled

[Note: apologies for the lack of posts recently; I’m actually on vacation this week.]

The Senate Commerce Committee formally announced yesterday what had been expected for some time: they will hold a nomination hearing for NASA administrator nominee Charles Bolden and deputy administrator nominee Lori Garver next week, on the afternoon of July 8. It had been clear for some time that they were not going to be able to squeeze in a nomination hearing before Congress went on recess this week, but there is a desire to get the two confirmed in advance of the Apollo 11 40th anniversary events later in July. Also note that Bolden and Garver are just two of the five nominees that will be the subject of the hearing.

It’s worth noting that despite all the claims made when the nominations were announced on May 23 to confirm them expediently, the two will take longer than confirm than Mike Griffin, who took about one month from the time his nomination was announced in mid-March 2005 to when he was confirmed by the full Senate. And that doesn’t factor in any potential complications that could delay the confirmation (not likely at this stage, but always possible when any member of the Senate can put a hold on any nomination for any reason, regardless of whether it’s related to the nominee or not.)