Senate Panel Approves Woman as AF Secretary
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WASHINGTON — A Senate panel has approved President Clinton’s nomination of the first woman to serve as secretary of a branch of the U.S. armed services.
By voice vote Friday, the Senate Armed Services Committee cleared Clinton’s choice of Sheila Widnall, 55, an aeronautical engineer and associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to be Air Force secretary and sent the nomination to the full Senate.
Widnall has denied allegations that her husband’s yacht club discriminates against Jews and other minorities. She said the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, Mass., in which her husband, William, has been a full member since 1984, does not have a discriminatory policy.
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