Senate Aide Nominated for Department’s Civil Rights Post

Amid a flurry of activity to fill out the Department of Education’s leadership roster, President Bush has nominated a veteran Senate aide to take up the long-vacant post of assistant secretary for civil rights.

Stephanie Johnson Monroe, 47, was the chief counsel for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee from 2001 until earlier this year, and previously held other committee jobs. Ms. Monroe has long worked with Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. When he gave up the gavel of the education panel earlier this year to take over the Senate Budget Committee, Ms. Monroe followed him there.

The move came as the Senate on June 30 confirmed Thomas W. Luce III, a major Republican donor and the founder of the Austin, Texas-based group, Just for the Kids, as assistant secretary for the Education Department’s office of planning,...