As a follow-up, according to Resource Recycling Magazine May 2013 President Obama's pick for the new director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is one step closer to starting work as Gina McCarthy's nomination moves to the Senate floor on a party-line vote. The contentious nomination of McCarthy, that was blocked last week by Senate Republicans, was approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a 10-8 vote, strictly along partisan lines. The nomination now heads to the floor of the Senate, where approval is not assured, with Senate Republicans threatening to filibuster unless given more information about how McCarthy would run the agency.

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As a follow-up, according to Resource Recycling Magazine May 2013 Eight Republican U.S. senators from that body's Environment Committee have refused to vote on whether Gina McCarthy can fill the vacated directorship of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Saying that they had not received enough responses to reportedly more than 1,000 written questions, all of the Republican senators on the Environment Committee boycotted a vote that would have allowed her nomination to move on to the floor of the Senate. Even if the vote had been allowed to occur, McCarthy — who has been described as a "friend to recycling" — faced a filibuster from Senate Republicans. Even though, according to the Obama administration, McCarthy answered all of the 1,079 questions — a record number — the eight senators were "completely unsatisfied" by many of the answers and refused to let the committee vote on her nomination.

According to an article in E-Scrap News March 2013, President Obama has nominated Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency. McCarthy is currently an assistant administrator at the EPA. She is best known for her work on air quality and has occupied several state-level positions where she sought to increase recycling rates and helped launch a new electronics recycling program. McCarthy has served under both Democrats and Republicans and is said to be a friend of the electronics recycling industry. This administration has taken an interest in electronics recycling, launching efforts to provide better stewardship of the large volume of electronics that are discarded every year.     My own commentary on this appointment is that presently there is no federal legislation regarding electronics recycling, rather it is a patchwork of individual state legislation, each uniquely different, that exists amongst only twenty-six states, Florida not being one of them. Perhaps under McCarthy’s leadership she will bring electronics recycling experience that may lead to federal legislation so that we all (states) are on the same page when it comes to dealing with responsible electronics recycling.