In 1997, Meacher's status as the longest serving member of the shadow cabinet should, under party rules, have guaranteed him a job in the first Labour cabinet, but Tony Blair ignored the rules and made him a middle ranking environment minister instead.
Boxer, the ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee and a senior member of the Select Ethics Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, focused on the environment, women's rights and consumer issues.
Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, released a statement praising the rule change as a "common sense" revision.
He is the ranking member on the Environment and Public Works Committee; it is a position he holds because Democratic leaders agreed to give it to him.
Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, put a hold on Mr. Bryson's nomination, preventing a vote for months.
Mr. Warner, who is losing his senior position on the Armed Services Committee as a result of term limits, said he intended to ask his Republican colleagues to elect him as the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which is likely to address global warming issues in the new Congress.
As a spokesman for Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, Mr. Morano was for years a ceaseless purveyor of the dissenting view on climate change, sending out a blizzard of e-mail to journalists covering the issue.
Senate Republicans -- including Sens. Inhofe, the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, David Vitter (La).
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif ., the ranking D-Calif .on the Enviranking anDemocrat Wonks CommitheEnvironmenthandthe new legislation is too weak, and would undermine states that have set tougher laws than the federal rules.
The senator is now the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee that oversees the EPA and its efforts to improve the quality of our air, water and land.
