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Washington in brief

Bush chooses career scientist to lead EPA

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday nominated Stephen L. Johnson, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to take over the helm of the agency and promote his administration's goal of rewriting the nation's air pollution laws.

Bush said that if Johnson is confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first career EPA employee and first professional scientist to head the agency. Johnson, 53, of Washington has worked at the EPA for 24 years and previously served as assistant administrator of the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, among other posts.

Johnson, who holds a master's degree in pathology from George Washington University, would replace Mike Leavitt, who was chosen by Bush in December to serve as secretary of health and human services in his second term.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's budget would keep federal deficits over $200-billion annually over the next decade, Congress' top budget analyst said Friday in a report raising doubts about White House efforts to contain the shortfalls.

The analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Bush's plans for spending and taxes would yield deficits through the decade ending in 2015 totaling $2.58-trillion. That is $1.6-trillion worse than they would be if none of the president's fiscal plans become law, the budget office said, the chief factor being his plan to make already enacted tax cuts permanent.

The congressional office said it believes cumulative deficits over the next decade will be $125-billion worse than it estimated only last January. That is largely because it has added $70-billion to its projected 10-year costs of Medicare spending, about 1 percent more, including $54-billion more for the costs of prescription drug coverage.

The new figures were released days before the House and Senate budget committees plan to write their own spending plans for the coming year.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - With a jab at a recalcitrant Congress, President Bush returned to the road Friday to open a two-month campaign to rally Americans behind his Social Security plan as Democrats and interest groups launched a counter program of protests, testimonials and advertising.

Bush hit Indiana and New Jersey on Friday and scheduled a two-day, four-state swing next week as part of an intensified drive to stage 60 events by administration officials in 60 days.

Democrats responded with their own "Fix It, Don't Nix It" swing.

The accelerated public efforts, bankrolled by millions of dollars from special interests, underscored the rising stakes as Bush gambles much of his second-term political capital on his proposal to incorporate personal investment accounts into the Social Security system.

With congressional Democrats largely unified against the idea and many Republicans ambivalent, Bush is counting on the presidential megaphone to shift momentum. "Now is the time to get rid of all that deadlock in Washington," he said Friday.

[Last modified March 5, 2005, 00:42:15]