A key Senate panel has signed off on President Bush’s choice to become the Department of Education’s new assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.
John H. Hager, a former lieutenant governor and homeland-security chief in Virginia, was unanimously approved Sept. 22 in an executive session of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Mr. Hager was elected in 1997 to a four-year term as lieutenant governor along with then-Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, a Republican. He served at the same time as the chairman of the state’s disability commission.
If confirmed by the full Senate, Mr. Hager will replace Robert H. Pasternack, a former state director of special education from New Mexico, who left the assistant secretary’s post in January.
