GOP senators suspend committee rules to advance Trump EPA pick Scott Pruitt
- by Carmen Reese
- in Science
- — Feb 3, 2017
Thursday is the second straight day the committee met to vote on Pruitt's confirmation but it's also the second straight day committee Democrats boycotted the hearing.
Republicans on the Senate EPW Committee voted 11-0 Thursday in approval of Pruitt serving as the EPA's administrator without any Democrats present.
Pruitt is likely to win confirmation in a full Senate vote, as no Republicans have indicated that they will oppose him, and Sen.
Committee chairman John Barrasso accused the absent Democrats of engaging in delay and obstruction. "These questions remain unanswered by the nominee and Democrats rightly refused to be complicit in pushing forward such an unacceptable nominee, so Republicans rewrote the rules so that Pruitt can seize control of the EPA and throw critical clean air and water rules out".
"We can not fully judge Mr. Pruitt's positions nor assess potential conflicts of interests that would impact his service at the EPA without responses to our questions for the record", Markey said. Pressed by Democrats in his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, however, Pruitt said he disagreed with Trump's earlier claims that global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese to harm the economic competitiveness of the United States.
Capito believes Pruitt will "right-size" the EPA. The exact same method was used by Republicans to advance Pruitt, Trump's controversial pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Pruitt, the current Oklahoma attorney general, has extensive knowledge of the federal regulatory system and the rule of law.
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, attacked Carper's panel discussion as a "shadow hearing" and said Pruitt has been cooperative with committee members.
Barrasso slammed Democrats' move as "unprecedented". President Trump called the harsh regulations a "war on coal", and Pruitt said that the plan would shut down numerous coal-fired power plants in Oklahoma and raise the price of electricity for consumers. They could afford to even lose two, since Vice President Mike Pence, in his constitutional role as president of the Senate, could be expected to break the tie in favor of a Trump nominee.
Lastly, Environmental Working Group president and co-founder Ken Cook said that President Trump has found just the man to carry out his vision of dismantling the EPA.
