Senate panel optimistic, but Ensign still plans to hold up TSA nomination

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Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee seemed optimistic Tuesday that former Navy Rear Adm. David Stone would will be confirmed to head the Transportation Security Administration, but Sen. John Ensign still plans to hold up his nomination.

Stone would not speak with reporters after a Senate Commerce Committee hearing reviewing his nomination Tuesday, and TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said the hold had been lifted.

But Ensign spokesman Jack Finn insisted the hold has not been lifted and the senator still has questions on the agency's process for allocating security screeners to airports.

Finn said Ensign wants to find out why Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport received such a low number of screeners in the past. He also wants to know how the agency plans to fix the problem.

Ensign, who sits on the committee, was not at the hearing. He was meeting with Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve. Volcker has been appointed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to head an internal investigation on the Oil-for-Food scandal.