President Bush filled one of the two remaining open spots on his second-term Cabinet Monday with the nomination of Michael Leavitt to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Bush praised Leavitt, currently the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, for his ability to implement a broad range of second-term health initiatives. The president hopes to expand the role of faith-based groups in providing counseling services, increase access to prescription drugs and continue to protect the country from disease and biological attack.

“Mike Leavitt is the right leader to lead HHS in meeting all these vital commitments,” Bush said. “I thank him for accepting this new responsibility.”

One of Leavitt’s chief responsibilities will be overseeing the implementation of the first-ever Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2006. He’ll be joined by Medicare chief Dr. Mark McClellan, who had been considered a favorite for the HHS secretary job.

Leavitt succeeds Tommy Thompson as head of HHS, which at 66,639 employees and a 2004 fiscal year budget of $548 billion is one of the largest departments in the federal government. Like former Wisconsin governor Thompson, Leavitt brings extensive experience in state government to the job, having served 11 years as governor of Utah.

In a statement, Thompson said that background will serve Leavitt well when he assumes control of the department.

“Gov. Leavitt has a compassion for the hopes and health of people, which makes him a strong fit to lead what we call the Department of Compassion,” said Thompson, who along with Leavitt pioneered welfare reform efforts in the 1990s.

Upon Bush’s announcement, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and other groups cautioned the incoming secretary from pursuing an agenda driven by ideology and not science. Leavitt said Monday that both can coexist.

“I’m persuaded that we can use technology and innovation to meet our most noble aspirations and not compromise our other values that we hold so dear,” Leavitt said.

Bush previously nominated Leavitt to the quasi-Cabinet position of EPA administrator in 2003 to replace former administrator Christine Whitman. Environmental groups, many times not fond of Bush’s policies, have often bemoaned Leavitt for being a puppet to the White House’s environmental initiatives.

“We’ve now seen Christine Whitman, who actually had a decent environmental record as governor of New Jersey, and Mike Leavitt, who had a very bad record in Utah, yet the agenda remains the same,” Sierra Club spokesman David Willett said. “It’s really impossible to look at [Leavitt’s] record aside from the Bush administration.”

The next head of the EPA will have opportunities to strengthen enforcement of environmental laws and hold polluters more accountable but won’t be able to change anything unless the White House stops calling the shots, Willett said.

“Just this weekend the EPA was moving forward with provisions [to preserve] parts of the clean air act, but they were ordered by the White House to delay implementing that,” Willett said.

Leavitt’s nomination is the ninth to what will be a completely retooled second-term Bush Cabinet.

One of the nine vacancies remain, however, following former New York Police Department head Bernard Kerik’s decision to decline an invitation to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security Secretary. Kerik cited immigration concerns over a former family nanny for removing his name from consideration.

All new appointees will need to be confirmed by the Senate before beginning their responsibilities in charge of their respective departments.