The toxic partisanship fouling Washington, DC, has cost another Obama administration appointee his job.

 

William Boarman was nominated in April 2010 to head the Government Printing Office (GPO). The Senate Rules and Administration Committee unanimously endorsed Boarman in July 2010, but he was never given a full Senate vote. It is thought that his union affiliations led some Republicans to try to derail his confirmation. On December 29, 2010, Obama gave Boarman a one-year recess appointment. But he never received his mandatory confirmation hearing before the Senate recessed for the remainder of this year. Consequently, Boarman has no choice but to step down.

 

Boarman first worked as an apprentice printer in 1967. He eventually rose to become president of the Printing, Publishing & Media Workers Sector of the Communications Workers of America, as well as senior vice president of the union.

 

Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York), who supported Boarman’s confirmation, blasted Senate Republicans for blocking a vote, telling The Washington Post that it is “appalling when you get a public servant who cares about this government, in a nonpolitical place, the Government Printing Office, who has done an excellent job by all accounts—cutting costs, what we on both sides of the aisle want—and he gets held up” by politics.

 

With Boarman out, the GPO now will be run by his chief of staff, Davita Vance-Cooks. The new deputy director will become the first woman to lead the agency

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Government Printing Office Boss Out After Senate Fails to Vote (by Ed O’Keefe, Washington Post)

A Woman Is Set to Lead GPO for the First Time (by Ed O’Keefe, Washington Post)