US President-elect George W. Bush added four new members to his cabinet Friday, leaving three key positions left to fill with just three weeks to go until his January 20 inauguration.
Bush, who later left Washington for Austin, Texas, indicated the vacancies in the energy, transportation and labor departments would not be filled until after New Year's Day.
Among those nominated Friday was Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the massive agency which oversees government health care, food and drug safety and welfare programs.
Bush also filled three other cabinet vacancies, naming Houston, Texas, school Superintendent Rod Paige as education secretary, former Colorado state attorney general Gale Norton as interior secretary and Vietnam War veteran Tony Principi as veteran's affairs secretary.
Thompson, 59, the nation's longest-serving governor, is a veteran Republican politician who abolished welfare and doubled prison capacity in Wisconsin.
In his four terms as governor since 1986, Thompson delivered massive tax cuts and made Wisconsin the first US state to replace existing welfare benefits for the poor with programs requiring participants to work.
Thompson also launched the first "school choice" program in the country, allowing low-income families unsatisfied with free public schools to use public funds to send their children to private or religious schools.
He oversaw passage of laws making it harder for prisoners to win parole, more than doubled the state's prison capacity and made state laws more severe on young offenders, lowering the age at which a child may be tried as an adult in the state of Wisconsin to as young as 10.
Like Bush he is a staunch opponent of abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in danger.
"He's a leader and innovator," Bush said of Thompson. "He's also been a champion of education reform and for opportunity for disadvantaged Americans. He will bring creativity and conviction to Washington, DC."
Paige has since 1994 been leader of the seventh largest school district in the United States, with 209,000 students, most of whom are ethnic minorities. He was named an outstanding urban educator in 1999 by an education advocacy group.
Paige also is the third black named to a cabinet-level post by Bush, following Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, chosen to be his national security adviser.
A Republican, Paige said he has long been an admirer of the Bush family and looks forward to playing a key role in education reform.
"When we set high standards for our schools and our children and when we give our schools and our children the support they need and hold them accountable for results, public education can get the job done," Paige said.
Norton, 46, Colorado's attorney general from 1991 to 1999, is a Republican with "a reputation for building consensus on divisive issues," Bush said.
She has tended to take conservative positions on environmental issues, supporting Bush's call to open up public lands in Alaska to oil drilling.
Principi, who served in the US Navy in the Vietnam war, is a California lawyer and businessman. He was deputy veteran's affairs secretary in the administration of Bush's father, former president George Bush. Most recently, he was chairman of a congressional committee investigating improvements in veteran's services -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
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