Senate Republican won't budge on Interior nominee hold

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said Wednesday he has no plans to lift a hold on the nomination of a key Interior Department official over the Obama administration’s offshore drilling policies.

Vitter met with Michael Bromwich, the Interior Department’s top offshore-drilling official, Wednesday to discuss his concerns. But Bromwich, who heads the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, wasn’t able to change Vitter’s mind about the hold.

“I wish my meeting with Director Bromwich was more fruitful,” Vitter said in a statement. “Unfortunately, pretty much all he did was repeat the administration’s talking point that there is no de facto drilling moratorium in the Gulf."

Vitter put a hold Tuesday on President Obama’s nominee to head the Fish and Wildlife Service, Dan Ashe. He said he will not lift the hold until the Interior Department issues 15 deepwater drilling permits.

The administration has imposed a “de facto moratorium” on deepwater drilling, Vitter claimed, noting that regulators have yet to issue a single deepwater drilling permit since last year’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

But the Interior Department says it is working diligently to review permit applications now that it has imposed a series of new safety regulations on the industry. The department has issued a slew of shallow-water drilling permits since the spill.

Vitter has also placed a hold on the nomination of Scott Doney to become the head scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over his frustrations with the administration’s offshore drilling policies.