President Obama has withdrawn his nomination of former MBTA chief Beverly Scott to the National Transportation Safety Board, abruptly ending her controversial bid to the $155,000-a-year post, the Herald has learned.
Obama officially rescinded her nomination yesterday, according to a White House document viewed by the Herald. A White House spokesman said last night Scott requested that her nomination be withdrawn "due to personal reasons related to her family."
Efforts to reach Scott were unsuccessful.
Bay State senators had given news of Scott's nomination a lukewarm reception after it was announced in July, the Herald reported then.
U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey, who sits on the committee tasked with vetting the nomination, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren were both non-committal when asked if they supported Scott's nomination. However, one committee member, Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, said she was "deeply troubled" by the T's failures last winter during Scott's tenure.
Her problem-plagued tenure as the head of the MBTA culminated when the entire system collapsed at the height of last winter's snowstorms.
Perhaps the lasting image of Scott as MBTA chief was a bizarre press conference on Feb. 10 in which she at times paced, banged her hand on a podium, and referred to herself in the third person.
She announced her resignation from the agency in February and officially stepped down in April.
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