WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- The White House says it wants former U.S. Rep. Joseph Brennan, D-Maine, to continue serving on the five-member Federal Maritime Commission.
Brennan, who was governor of Maine from 1979 to 1987, has been a federal maritime commissioner since 1999.
The term to which he has been named expires on Sept. 20, 2008.
Under federal law, no more than three maritime commissioners may be members of the same political party.
The president has also chosen Barbara Sapin to fill a vacancy on the three-member U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board that oversees merit programs within the federal workforce.
Sapin, currently the general counsel to the National Abortion Federation and a previous vice chairman of the MSPB, has been chosen to fill the remainder of a seven-year term that expires March 1, 2007. By statute, at least one of the MSPB board members must be of a different political party than the other two.
Both Sapin and Brennan's appointments must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
