WASHINGTON - Although her office strongly denies it, agency insiders, Capitol Hill staff and environmental groups expect Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman to leave her job soon.
Whitman, a former New Jersey governor and a high-profile Republican moderate, has been a green-friendly face on President Bush's environmental team, but she reportedly has chafed at the administration's pro-development policies. Among the signs of her imminent departure, EPA watchers say, are:
She isn't setting any appointments for meetings after Jan. 1, according to people in the EPA, on Capitol Hill and in environmental organizations. However, the EPA's chief spokesman, Joe Martyak, denies that, saying a scheduling session Tuesday committed Whitman to meetings as far out as April and May.
She has told staffers who followed her from New Jersey that they should think about looking for new jobs, insiders say. Martyak denies it.
Eileen McGinnis, Whitman's chief of staff, resigned effective Dec. 31 and is returning to New Jersey, Whitman told EPA staff members last week. But Martyak said McGinnis had taken the job on the condition that she could return home after two years.
Martyak said the rumors are wrong. Whitman "has absolutely no plans about leaving, but she has a lot of plans about how to continue getting the job done," he said.
Nevertheless, the buzz in Washington's environmental-policy community only grows louder. In the most common scenario, Whitman is expected to take an ambassadorship. That would permit her to walk away from the EPA without abandoning Bush, and would let the White House cast her departure as a promotion for a deserving team player. Whitman's associates say she loves foreign policy and has a strong sense of loyalty to Bush.
Russell Train, the EPA's second administrator, under Republican Presidents Nixon and Ford, said he had heard that Whitman wanted to leave but was talked into staying until after last month's elections.
"There's a lot of demoralization in the agency today, and the White House seems to be calling most of the tunes as far as regulatory matters," Train said.
Rumors of Whitman's impending departure are so widespread that "at some point it does affect the effectiveness of the agency," said Bob Perciasepe, a former assistant EPA chief under President Clinton.