Washington — President George W. Bush has nominated Stephen Johnson, currently the acting administrator of the Washington-based U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to become the administrator of the agency.

Johnson became the acting administrator of the EPA in January, after the previous administrator, Michael Leavitt, became the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. In August 2004, Johnson was in as deputy administrator of the EPA. He had served as the acting deputy administrator since the summer of 2003.

He has been with the EPA for 24 years. Prior to joining it, he served as the director of operations at Hazelton Laboratories Corp. and Litton Bionetics Inc.