Republican senators staged a boycott of the nomination of Gina McCarthy as head of the Environmental Protection Agency Thursday, surprising the top Democrat on the Senate committee in charge of the vote and furthering a pattern of delay that also postponed a confirmation vote on President Barack Obama’s Labor nominee Wednesday.

“I am rather stunned that this is happening,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the committee chairwoman. “I never even knew they were boycotting this until I got a letter [Thursday] morning.”

In a letter sent to Boxer, the Republican committee members said the EPA was “stonewalling” their requests for further information on McCarthy.

“As you know, all Republicans on our EPW committee have asked EPA to honor five very reasonable and basic requests in conjunction with the nomination of Gina McCarthy which focus on openness and transparency,” they wrote. “While you have allowed EPA adequate time to fully respond before any mark-up on the nomination, EPA has stonewalled on four of the five categories. Because of this, no Republican member of the Committee will attend [Thursday]’s mark-up if it is held.”

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the committee’s top Republican, said in a release that McCarthy had provided “nonresponsive answers” and left Republicans “completely unsatisfied.”

The absence of all eight Republican committee members left the panel without a quorum, though had all Democrats been present, they would have been able to proceed. Boxer, however, dismissed that approach – at least for now.

“Today we are asking the Republicans to come back, we will schedule another mark-up,” she said, adding it was never her intention to push the confirmation today without Republicans present.

But the Democrats present at the hearing each took their turn bashing their conservative colleagues over the walkout, extolling McCarthy’s experience and willingness to answer what they called an unprecedented number of questions.

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