pruitt. if my colleagues in the senate really want to stop pollution, we can start by keeping scott pruitt from going to lead the e.p.a. our environment should not be for sale, should not be neglected, and should not be turned aaside from being the core mission of the a. e.p.a. and i think we all should stand firm against the nomination of scott pruitt to lead that important agency. with that, mr. president, thank you. and i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, it is an absolute honor to rise to speak in behalf of scott pruitt he has been a leader in the state of oklahoma and struggling to enforce the law in oklahoma as its written and as its consistent with the constitution. he's a statesman, he's a a dedicated public servant. as administrator of the earnings i fully expect -- as administrator of the e.p.a., i fully expect scott to be able to follow every law to do what's best for the present and for the fut

pruitt. you might say he's a carbon copy of mr. pruitt. and if you look at his history, the history of mr. wheeler, you find a very cozy relationship. between the nominee, mr. wheeler, between mr. pruitt, the current administrator, and an army of lobbyists for the coal industry. in fact, mr. wheeler, as we've noted, has been a lobbyist for that industry, and if you look at his relationships, you find that, as he was advising murray energy, murray energy was at that time a top donor to scott pruitt's super pac. this is before mr. pruitt became the administrator of the e.p.a. he had a super pac. and murray energy, for whom mr. wheeler lobbied, was one of the top donors to that pruitt super pac. and the relationship between pruitt and wheeler and bob murray gets even cozier when we see that bob murray was a co-plaintiff in eight of the 14 lawsuits that pruitt brought against the e.p.a. before pruitt became the administrator. so i want to get this right. you have mr. wheeler, who was the lobbyist for mr. murray, and mr. murray joined with prui

pruitt's nomination. i would like to read two of the letters i have received. georgia is a ph.d. student at the university of hawaii. she wrote, quote, i strongly oppose scott pruitt's confirmation as e.p.a. administrator. mr. pruitt is a climate change denier who has actively worked against the mission of the agency. as a ph.d. student in science, i know we need an e.p.a. administrator that respects science an supports clean air, clean water and a healthy environment. pruitt is the wrong choice for our nation and must be rejected. end quote. kako also wrote to explain what this fight means to her. quote. this is not a bipartisan issue, but it is as much an american issue as it is a hawaiian issue, a human issue and as much as it is for mother earth. i ask that you be vigilant in the face of climate change deniers. mahalo for everyone living today and going to be born tomorrow. welch come too -- we've come too far over the past eight years to let someone like scott pruitt destroy the progress we've made.

whose shied is scott pruitt -- whose side is scott pruitt on? the children in his state, one out of ten who has asthma, or devon energy? and we want to put him in charge of the e.p.a., without even having a thorough understanding of what his relationship was with these companies. well, my colleague doing his own ex-us a stiff research about -- ex-oughtive research about the campaign funding he had received and more support from companies like this, it creates an implication. well, let's get to the bottom of what's happening. let's see the e-mails before we vote. what do these say to these corporations? i asked him. he allowed polluting companies to write e-mails to the e.p.a. on his letterhead. did he let any of the children with asthma or their parents write letters that he then just put on his letterhead? people who were suffering from the poor air quality. later the director of government relations at devon energy e-mailed mr. pruitt's office. this we do know, to sproas gratitude -- to express gratitude to the attorney general forge for sendi

pruitt -- mr. pruitt chooses to defend and protect the needs of the biofuel industry over the needs of our children? that is not someone worthy of representing the american people. that is not someone worthy of heading this agency. and, you know, let's just stick to mr. pruitt's own words, not the words of oh, not the words of my constituents, but in his own words. this is what he said about the agency that he's been chosen to lead. mr. pruitt describes himself as, and i quote, a leading advocate against the e.p.a.'s activist agenda. he said this on his linkedin page. we bein accessed this in januarf 2016. on the role of the e.p.a., he said, an i quote, i believe the e.p.a. has a role to play in our republican form of government. air and water quality issues can cross state lines and can sometimes require federal intervention. at the same time, the e.p.a. was never intended to be our nation's front line environmental regulator. unquote. this was his testimony before the house committee on science,

somebody was using it to attack scott pruitt. but this picture had nothing to do with scott pruitt. this was the e.p.a. led by gina mccarthy. my response to the spill was that the e.p.a. should be held accountable to the same level in which e.p.a. holds private businesses accountable. i think that's a pretty good standard. but if the e.p.a. is going to -- they make sure that somebody lives up to a standard, that the e.p.a. live up to the same standard. that basic standard for the e.p.a. to me, because the agency called the spill, it simply must apply the same requirements to itself that it does to a private company. so it was with great disappointment but very little surprise that when the e.p.a. decided to not subject itself to those same standards they walked away from the promises that they made. sure the e.p.a. had standards under barack obama. they were double standards. the obama administration's e.p.a.'s refusal to not receive and process the personal injury or economic loss claims arising out of this spill at the gold king mine in southwest colorado is appalling. and i simpl

pruitt's nomination. this is from all sources. i received 1,880 letters opposing his nomination. pretty amazing. we don't get these kind of volume of letters, e-mails or faxes or letters. 1,800 opposed. other the past three months editorial boards across the country have expressed their own serious concerns about this tpho*eupl as well. i -- nominee as well. i want to share a few of those with my colleagues and the world this morning. back in december "the new york times" wrote these words and i will read them. this is december -- a couple of months ago. had donald trump spent an entire year sko*uring the country for someone to weaken the clean air and clean water laws to repudiate america's leadership role in the global battle against climate change, he could not have found a more proper candidate. that is a pretty bold charge. it goes on to say that he is a an aggressively bad choice. again, the e.p.a. wasn't created in a law signed by a democrat, it was by a republican. the clean air act clean water ac

pruitt as attorney general took over two years. so a few weeks ago when a lawsuit was filed against mr. pruitt on this very issue, the suit requested that he respond to nine open records requesting for as many as 3,000 e-mails. and as i just said, yesterday a judge said that he has to turn over those records, those documents and has to do so by tuesday. so it's not a long time to wait. it's not a long time to discuss the concerns that our colleagues have with this position. in fact, i'd be happy to come back on wednesday and make sure we have consideration then, giving people time till tuesday. but people are pushing us to vote for this nomination tomorrow. or i should say today at this hour. so what do my colleagues not want to see in the pruitt e-mails? what is it that they don't want to know? attorney general pruitt has been part of close to 30 antienvironmental legal actions. is that what they don't want to see? i know one of my colleagues has said he's going to make polluters pay. he's going to assure that these issues are imp

pruitt. a lot of questions. and she did not have enough time to answer the questions and a little bit of extra time, maybe a week or so, was granted. she answered the questions, as i understand it, fully, completely, directly, and i'll have to be honest with you. i'll read some of the questions that we asked of scott pruitt later today, later tonight, and with examples of the kind of answers he provided. some were reasonably complete, but too many were evasive, indirect or just nonresponsive. and that's -- maybe that's because the chairman only gave him a couple of days to respond. that's not the way we ought to do business around here. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and i see we have been joined by a former governor from the great state of new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i came to the floor today to oppose the nomination of scott pruitt to serve as administrator of the environment

pruitt. mr. pruitt intends to prevent the e.p.a. from protecting public health and the environment by reducing the budget by two-thirds. trump transition team member myron ebil made these plans clear. mr. pruitt will cut and then cut some more and then cut some more until the agency we trust to keep us safe is no bigger than when richard nixon was president. so what exactly should we cut? which aspect of public health in our environment are in need of less protection and research? well, let me tell you about some of the things e.p.a. has accomplished since its creation. the e.p.a. helps protect us from toxins. from 1948 to 1988, 30 million homes were treated for termite infestation with two related, very long-lasting chemicals, heptachloro and cordate. they're among the 12 worst known persistent, organic pollutants. a rogues gallery called it the dirty dozen. a long-time study found americans have these chemicals in their flood and their fat and the higher the level, the more likely a person is to suffer from dementia, type 2 diabet

pruitt this. how much does it cost to lose an organ like i have, to lose a parent or child from cancer? how much sick days and inhalers cost? families already struggling to make ends meet. many of these costs are not in dollars alone. thank you, sarah. sarah is a mother, a registered nurse. she wrote to me earlier this month to express her concerns regarding mr. pruitt's nomination. in her letter she explained to me that she was born in 1978 in western new york state, just miles away from the love canal neighborhood, the site of one of the most appalling environmental disasters in american history. for those who don't know, don't recall, love canal was a planned community that eventually had to be evacuated after 22,000 barrels of toxic waste were dumped in the nearby canal, 22,000 barrels. families whose homes were contaminated with chemicals and toxic waste had to leave. many faced serious health challenges later in their lives. these were the real threats we faced before we had the e.p.a. or la

pruitt should stay. and that is exactly why i'm concerned that the senate is not giving the deputy administrator nominee the scrutiny he should have. mr. president, andrew wheeler could become the e.p.a. administrator if scott pruitt is forced out or resigns. he should be vetted as if he were the nominee, and there are many reasons to question whether he belongs at the e.p.a. at all. just like mr. pruitt, mr. wheeler has spent his entire political career fighting e.p.a. regulations to protect the environment and protect public health. he has lobbied for many years on behalf of polluters that the e.p.a. regulates. the american people support clean air, clean water. mr. wheeler is out of step with the values and principles of american taxpayers. i know many republicans who support environmental protection, and we have had many decades of bipartisan support for public health, for environmental protection, clean air, clean water, folks don't want their kids to have toxic chemicals in their blood or in their

pruitt's office? no. in in instance good investigative journalism determined the comment expressing fracking having any effect on water quality was written by a company, pasted on to official oklahoma letterhead and submitted to the e.p.a. as representing the views of oklahoma officials. would it be appropriate as the attorney general of oklahoma that has significant oil and gas to take into account the view of oil and gas producers on something as important as fracking? absolutely. in fact, you would not be doing your job if you didn't take the views of those companies into account. but considering industry views is very different than taking their views and portraying them as coming from you, a holder of a public trust. you're supposed to be working for everybody and not just one company or one industry. mr. president, here's one more example i'll give you before i conclude because i take it personally. virginia is one of the six states in the chesapeake bay watershed, and i worked on this matter as gov

pruitt's tenure at e.p.a. has been an unmitigateed disaster for public health, for the environment, and for the future of the planet we call home. its only value is if you have some peculiar connoisseur interest in government corruption to watch all the many ways in which industry can work its will within its supposed regulator. well, tomorrow those of us who sit on the environment and public works committee have that opportunity to put it to god use and prove how boldly pruitt is in the pockets of the polluters he is supposed to police. i sincerely my colleagues seize the opportunity. you can be sure that my democratic colleagues and i will. i yield the floor. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. today in communities across our country young people are asking whether they will be able to stay in the country they've ever called home. struggling patients and veterans are wondering whether their local community health center will b

for them, pruitt running this public health agency into the ground is a feature, not a bug of the pruitt tenure. they are just in it for the regulatory rollbacks. but i hope they recognize that a lot of pruitt's work is so sloppy that it will likely not ultimately stand up in court. i hope president trump understands that the guy he thinks of as hisreat deregulator isn't actually very good at deregulating. only time will tell how long scott pruitt can survive the mounting, swirling ethical ordeals of his own making, and we will also see how his industry-friendly regulatory record fares under the scrutiny of honest courts, but something tells me that i'll be back here in the not to distant future with more to say about the troubled and disgraceful tenure of scott pruitt. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: over the past few days the issue of fa

pruitt. i urge my colleagues to do the same. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? mr. schumer: would the senator from indiana like to make a unanimous consent request? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. a senator: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of all nominations on the secretary's desk, that the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order, that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the record, the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york, the minority leader. mr. schumer: i ask of the postcloture debate time under my control that 60 minutes be yielded to senator schatz, 60 minutes be yielded to sena

pruitt. i want to thank mr. pruitt for making himself available for today's hearing. administrator pruitt and his team has worked tirelessly to bring the epa back to its core mission, protecting the environment in common sense ways with input from states, local government and tribes, an approach is which abreath of fresh air. nobody wants to take care of our backyards more than us and our states. that's why i want to thank mr. pruitt for doing what is right by having the input of those with interests there. mr. pruitt, thank you for coming here today, thank you for making the whole state proud. i appreciate you and i yield back to chairman walden. >> i thank they for his introduction of the witness. administrator pruitt this committee is charged by the house of representative with legislative and oversight responsibilities for the bulk of the statutes the epa issues. we are an authorizing committee and it's been ten months since wowor sworn in as administrator, an agency that turned 47 on mon

they know their administrator pruitt. mr. president, pruitt's record at e.p.a.eveals he is unabashedly looking out for his industry donors at the expense of public health and the environment. as far as i can tell, every action since he has taken -- he has taken since taking office will lead to an enriched industry at the expense of dirtier air and dirtier water and a more imperilled climate. myron ebell is someone i don't quote often. he is the head of president trump's e.p.a. transition team, and he is a prominent climate denier. but he has something interesting to say about scott pruitt. he has said that he thinks scott pruitt is using e.p.a. as a -- and i quote him here -- steppingstone to political office, end quote. he has said that everything pruitt does is going to be a political calculation about what furthers his own political career, end quote. so this is not a liberal, an environmentalist making these accusations. this is somebody who is right in scott pruitt's climate denial wheelhouse. this is a guy right from the trump science denial e.p.a. destruc

pruitt today. it has been a while since you've been with us and thank you for postponing your planned trips to japan and israel to appear before this committee today. the first time in more than a year i have a friend who when asked how he was doing said compared to what and sometimes he says compared to whom and i'd like to say how about your predecessor appear before this committee six times in two years. six times in two years. while your predecessor appeared 14 times and six years. fourteen times and six years. you can do better on this front and it is important that you do. today we not only will hear from you about how things are going at epa but also here tonight from president trump about the current state of our union so it's an appropriate time to look at the state of our environment. i understand that epa has been highlighting its achievements on posters around agency and we have a copy of one of those posters here. there we go. let's take a closer look at what is being celebrated as ach

as pruitt is fully aware.you senator carper for letting me join you for this and i am honored to join my fellow senators langford and introducing not just the attorney general scott pruitt but my good friend. and to offer my support for his nomination to be the next administrator of the epa. though neither of us were born in oklahoma he got here as quickly as possible. in both ended up in tulsa so he is also a neighbor. the attorney general, you will be glad to know he was born in kentucky. and he showed when he was made out of and ended up a great baseball player and was able to get a scholarship and go through the university there. then he came to oklahoma and went through law school at the university of tulsa and did all kinds of things specialize at that time in constitutional law.in 1998 general pruitt ran and was elected to the oklahoma state senate. he served six years and quickly became a leader. indeed successes followed him throughout his law practice in the state senate to become co-owner and manage

general pruitt, welcome. i want to see if i can get through three areas in the five minutes that i have. first of all, waters of the united states, despite there being an injunction against enforcement of the wotus who i'm told region seven, the region which kansas is part, those regional inspectors of increased their inspection of smaller animal feeding operations, unlike many states kansas has a well-established state permit system for small facilities as well as the delegate authority of this clean water act. rather than chordate the ep, rather than courtney do with the state agency the epa is engaged in stone inspections and its own enforcement on the small facility. often conflicting with state permitting in the enforcement process. these actions epa is one jurisdiction over features like grass waterways, culverts under county roads, unconnected to the feeding operation and not situated in or near any body of water. general pruitt, what would your direction b2b epa staff to region seven and others in reg

but i am deeply concerned that scott pruitt is a radical break

pruitt from past e.p.a. nominees is his contempt for the mission of the environmental protection agency. and his disregard for the science that provides the very foundation for the agency's actions. mr. president, just as i would not vote to confirm a fox to guard a henhouse, i will not vote to confirm mr. pruitt to safeguard our nation's environment. i urge my colleagues to join me to oppose mr. pruitt's nomination. mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i spent the last few days having town hall meetings at home. it was a big challenge. we had a tremendous amount of snow. the distinguished president of the national is very familiar with that. but on my driveway in southeast portland, i guess, we had the most snow since 1937, and it just goes on and on. we're battling freezing rain. and yet oregonians came out in big, big numbers to participate in the discussion about what's going on in washington, d.c., and they were particularly troubled about w

pruitt in our hearing. "do you know of any matters which you may or may not have disclosed that might place you in any conflict of interest if you are confirmed?" mr. pruitt answers, "no." well, mr. president, scott pruitt crawls with conflict of interest. he has conflicts of interest with the fossil fuel industry from his political fund-raising. we just don't know how bad. he likely has conflicts of interest from confidential private meetings with fossil fuel companies at republican attorney generals association get-togethers, but we just don't know how bad. and there's almost certainly evidence of conflicts of interest in his undisclosed e-mails with fossil fuel companies. but again we just don't know how bad. he came clean on none of this in his confirmation hearing. this chart is a simple and a likely incomplete representation of the many financial links reported between pruitt and the fossil fuel industry. at the top are the companies and the entities that have supported mr. pruitt with political fundi

pruitt? we are wasting a lot of time otherwise we are just talking about it spirit lets go three minutes each and then we will call it good. you are up. >> mr. kevin? >> senator booker. >> i want to be i do think, you've been favored generous it's too. i appreciate what seems like an accord write a few minutes each. i appreciate that the one thing you did mark which i think should be important is i have no sympathy for the nominee and his interns. i do have for his family behind in hua sent through this and i just want to park for true champions, and i think that's important to note. i thank them for the indulgence. not the nominee but -- >> that is more evidence he cares for the children of oklahoma. >> i would you say many people, more people vote for me because my wife then vote for me and i would suggest for you as well in the case of his nominee. >> i just wanted to touch on two things and then we will wrap up. the first is on your question and you listed an e-mail address with a me.com

they are causing damage that mister pruitt has done the epa. will the american public to trust the epa to carry out its mission of protecting public health and our environment? i believe in giving credit where credit is due. in the few weeks that mister wheeler has been a failure, he was his calendars on a daily basis . he's opened up eas to the media as well as work to ensure that epa's career staff once again feel valued, respected and included. he withdrew mister pruitt parting to stopenforcing air emission standards for some of the dirtiest heavy-duty trucks on the road under the clean air , granting one company permission to continue building polluting flyer for two years. thank you for that. there's a whole lot more tobe done . wheeler has told me he shares michael that the deal between enautomakers in the state of california and other states on fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards. unfortunately the administration's proposal cannot be further win-win outcome that many of us on this committee and outside this committee believe is wit

pruitt supported. and also ask for unanimous consent that a recent article at the oklahoma it department of retirement no quality has advocated with other polluters who have to drink though water or breathe the air. and then has quite a different view. >> without objection. and we is attorneys general have several duties to represent the state agencies can to initiate lawsuits in the capacity of the attorneys general. >> some states provide that latitude. >> did your sacred. >> not as much as other state. >> have you ever wrecked -- exercise your independent capacity after reagan illegal action? >> i need more specifics were you are referring to. spirit can you never exercise to be the attorney general of your state to initiate a legal action could. >> largely is a note with other agencies. >> so you have used your independent capacity quick. >> you have bent the attorney-general almost seven years. >> six years to make you have initiated 14 lawsuits in your independent capacity as these attorney-gener

wehrum will work with administrator pruitt to help continue this trend at the e.p.a. i look forward to the senate advancing his nomination. now on another matter, members of the senate are continuing to work hard to deliver much-needed tax reform for families and small businesses. yesterday senators, members of the administration, and tax reform advocates met here in the capitol to discuss a mutual vision for relief. they shared the goals of simplicity, fairness, and economic growth. these are the same goals that i have. they are the same goals the house wrote into its legislation. they are the same goals the president asked us to consider. and, most importantly, they are the goals shared by many americans across the political spectrum. so we're working together to get this done. that is once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it will help us create jobs and boost the economy while closing special interest loopholes at the same time. we can do all of this through tax reform. today the house ways and means committee will continue to mark up its legislative proposal. i'd

pruitt's leadership, but we'll get to that later. today the senate is preparing to vote on the nominee to be the second-highest ranking official at the environmental protection agency, andrew wheeler. and as the number two at the environmental protection agency, andrew wheeler deserves the kind of scrutiny that reflects a position one step away from being the administrator. andrew wheeler has spent years protecting the coal industry. first, from here in the senate where he worked to prevent passage of climate legislation.

pruitt has done to the epa. will the american public be able to trust the epa in its mission to protect public health and the environment? i believe in giving credit where credit is due. the few weeks that mr. wheeler has been the acting administered , he has published conferences on his calendar on a daily basis. he has opened up the epa to work to ensure that the beleaguered crew staff once again feels valued, respected, and included. he withdrew mr. pruitt's parting act to stop enforcing air emissions standards for some of the dirtiest heavy-duty trucks on the road under the clear act, granting one company permission to continue building glider trucks for two years. thank you for that. there is a whole lot more to be done. mr. wheeler has told me repeatedly that he shares my bull and striking a deal between automakers and and states on fuel economy and tailpipe standards. unfortunately, the administration's proposal could not be further from the win-win outcome on this committee and outside this committee tha

pruitt. [applause] >> thank you very much. welcome to the epa. perhaps some of you this is your first visit to the epa. it's good to see some coalminers. the epa so welcome. [applause] we are gathered in the map room at the epa. maps are to simply help you navigate. maps are to help you work toward a destination journey towards a destination but as we gather today with the president he has set a new journey and a new pathway forward on how we are going to do business with respect to energy and environment. the president by his signature today is rejecting the narrative that this country cannot be both pro energy and pro environment. we have done that throughout our history. we can actually achieve good jobs good growth and pro energy policies at the same time we protect our environment and the president is sending that message by his signature today. number two he is also setting a pathway forward on a journey today that we are no longer going to have regulatory assaults on any given sector of our economy. that's going to end by the signing of th

what are you hear something scott pruitt is in washington today meeting with inhoffe, one of the most hard-line critics of climate hange and environmental regulations and so you have in pruitt someone from the conse e of the aisle.ide from the oil and gas industry, himself, pruitt is someone who has been welcomed by the trump peep and he will trump voters. tear apart regulations. is being e way price kind of zeroed in on by democrats, he's going after law, pruitt is seen as someone who will damage almost cripple the regulation president obama has put forward on the environment make sure ts want to they make a fuss about that before it goes away. ost: another big issue for donald trump is trade. he ran heavily on that issue. and doing something about nafta potentially ripping up this transpacific partnership deal is pending. today we hear that the trump dministration would like to have robert lighthizer, as trade representative. know?o you guest: lighthizer is part of a broader trade team. is told the key person trump. he wants to personally negotiate trade deals, working closely wilbu

long-time pruitt benefactor is cashing in on its investment in scott pruitt's career as he is looking to eliminate rules on the leaking and flaring of methane and rescinded requirements for reporting methane emissions. devon, as you may recall, is that company whose letter to the e.p.a. pruitt put on his own oklahoma attorney general letterhead to mask devon's hand and submit their work as his own official work as attorney general of his state. so this hand in glove relationship between devon as the hand and pruitt as the glove goes back a long way. the e.p.a. has career scientists and legal experts who bring decades of experience in environmental law and science to the e.p.a. who are all being cut out as the administrator takes drastic steps to undo environmental protections. just this week e.p.a. scientists were yanked from a conference in rhode island where they were going to talk about climate change. the matter of climate change and -- on narragansett bay in rhode island is pretty significant. this is "the providence journal" headlines, will climate change negate bay cleanup? wit

scott pruitt. [applaus [applause] >> the next person on the stage was the 52nd secretary of the interior, ryan zinke. he was a u.s. navy seal from 1986 until 2008. retiring with the rank of commander, and he was telling me earlier, it was a lot easier to be a navy seal than to be secretary of the interior. zinke has a distinction to be the first navy seal elected to the united states house of representatives and told me the difference was when he was a navy seal, he could shoot back. let us bring to the stage secretary of interior ryan zinke. [applaus [applause] >> and as our moderator, jackie, is a senior fellow of the texas public policy foundation, previously jackie served as general counsel to an engineering firm, specializing in energy, environmental cleanup, national security. let us bring to the stage, jackie. [applaus [applause] >> thank you, god bless you. >> all right, and we have precious little time because there is a plane to be kept. start, with the honorable scott pruitt. i think tha

his name is scott pruitt. scott pruitt has been beat up a lot by the special interests lobbyists and the environmental lobby. they put out all kinds of stuff about him. i would encourage them to actually meet scott pruitt and hear from him. scott pruitt has been passionate about the environment. scott pruitt actually likes breathing clean air. that may be shocking to people. but he likes clean air. in fact, he likes clean water as well. i don't know if you knew that or not. but scott pruitt has been a very good attorney general for us that has also been very focused on doing this one thing. what does the law say? let's do that. some of the pushback scott pruitt has had is not that he is opposed to the law, it's that he is not willing to push beyond the law, to be more creative with the clean water act, to be more creative with the clean air act. that's not the job of the executive branch is to be creative with an old law. it's to implement the law and to do it well. i fully expect scott pruitt to hold every pe

pruitt. you do not believe in epa's mission and appear to have forgotten that you are here to serve all the morgan people, not just a select few or just yourself. fact is you have used this office as nothing as an opportunity to enrich themselves or his corporate friends and president trump seems to be perfectly fine with all these actions so much for draining this one. when we met in december you pledge to be more transparent and promised to do a better job providing technical assistance and witnesses to hearings and responding to congressional requests. you have followed through on of these promises and what you have done is generate scandal after scandal and when confronted about them you repeatedly failed to take responsibility for your actions and blamed her staff and security and critics and anyone but yourself and you are accountable for your agency and all scandals in my opinion. there are so many out any questions that we need truthful answers to today but so far we've only gotten ha

it started with scott pruitt to head the epa. >> host: explain why you are so concerned about scott pruitt. >> guest: he has sued the epa 14 times while he was the atty. general of oklahoma. he he literally cut and pastedom oil and gas language on the oklahoma letterhead and submitted it as from the state.ta he is a lackey of the oil and gas industry. to to have him as the head of the epa basically has the epa, they're t supposed to be regulating the industry they work for. we are worried by that signal and the 30% cuts, the thousands of workers and employees that he wants to lay off shows that we are under attack. >> host: last time we talked about a new release from the trump campaign about the president's first 100 days ands his accomplishments. what is the environmental 1 story of the first 100 days. >> guest: he is attacking environmental protections and has made that a huge priority. it starts with scott pruitt and rex tiller's and, the former head of exxon mobil in charge of our foreign policy. we basically have a government t that works for oil industry. i think that's the story of

and welcome administrator pruitt. pruitt. i've been eagerly awaiting your testimony before the subcommittee. i'll get straight to it. the fiscal year 2018 budget request for epa is a disaster. you requested 5.655 billion, a staggering 2.4 billion below the fiscal year 2017 enacted level. a cut of more than 30%. while you claim most of these cuts will be part of a substantial reduction in workforce, would surely impact the epa's ability to fulfill its critical mission of protecting the air we breathe and the water we drink. between your disturbingly close ties to the oil and gas industries, your past work to directly undermined the epa and skepticism that human activity plays a role in climate change, i suppose it's surprisin surpriy didn't propose to eliminate the agency altogether. let's be clear. members of congress from both sides of the aisle, scientists, business leaders and the vast majority of americans agree, man-made climate change is real and it poses a threat to our planet that must be confronted quickly and seriou

i applaud pruitt's directive. i urge the president to promptly see to it that similar reforms are implemented across the administration. so a third time today, president trump issue an executive order to all departments to do what administrator pruitt has done at the e.p.a. now, mr. president, i would like to address the issue that we're voting on in a few minutes. the senate will vote on the nomination of michigan supreme court justice joan larsen to serve on the sixth circuit court of appeals. though she currently lives in michigan, justice larsen was born in and hails from my state of iowa. in fact, she and i share the same university, the university of northern iowa, for our bachelor's degrees. i've also learned since meeting justice larsen that her father was long time c.e.o. of lutheran services of iowa. now retired but during the time he was c.e.o., he was the very same person i often met with for breakfast when he would come to washington to tell us about the concerns of lutheran services of iowa. at that

we are going to move ahead swiftly with scott pruitt votes in committee. we all want clean air and clean water and clean land, and we can do it without hurting the economy at the same time. >> on friday this country witnessed yet again a peaceful transition of power. i was fortunate enough to have dozens of colorado students watching the inauguration as they admired our constitution at work. unfortunately around the same time though unless at-will action was taking place in the senate. as chuck schumer and others decided that they would stall the nominations to the presence national security team. the fact is at this point in time previous president, dozens of cabinet members had been put in place five days after the inauguration. in this case a key person, the cia, mike pompeo was denied confirmation. it's unacceptable that politics have taken a front seat while national security has taken a backseat. it must change. if you listen to the committee confirmation hearings that are taking place, some people seem to be more interested in cutting courses and ha

pruitt, welcome back. as you know we scheduled this hearing to focus on the epa's policy and budget priorities some time ago but you surely understand the members on the sides of the aisle have a serious questions about management and operation of the agency and we expect you to answer these questions fully and truthfully. i'm concerned that the good progress being made on policy is being undercut by allegations about your management of the agency and use of its resources. these issues are too persistent to ignore and i know many members are looking to hear more clarity from you today. you have ample opportunity to provide us with any information that can help answer these questions. additionally there are numerous ongoing investigations into these issues and i want you to commit to the committee that you will provide us with the same information you provide to the epa inspector general and other congressional committees. having said that let me also say that i appreciate your good work to focus the epa on

pruitt from being investigated for a number of lapses. the heartland called on the president to continue supporting mr. pruitt. the letter said that the ten ethical investigationings into mr. pruitt amounted to, quote, an orchestrated political campaign by the president's enemies. heartland also supports a new proposed e.p.a. rule, and get this one, it's a new e.p.a. rule that will restrict the use of scientific studies in e.p.a. decision making that will restrict the use of science in e.p.a. decision making. the american association for the advancement of science, the american chemical society, the american lung association, the national council for science, and the environment are some of the 50 science organizations and higher education institutions that oppose the new rule, but the heartland institute is for this rule. and i want to be really clear about this. this isn't about someone having a conservative ideology or different view of what our energy future ought to be than mine. there is no left-wing equivalent of the institute that

one by the guy named scott pruitt. scott pruitt happens to be from oklahoma. he's doing things now. i don't know of anyone who has been abused during a confirmation process like he was. poor scott sat there. as a general rule, after a committee gets through with that process, they have questions for the record. normally they're somewhere between 15 and 20 questions for the record. do you know how many scott pruitt got? he got 675 questions for the record. but anyway, he sustained that. he's now doing great things. over the last eight years i've had little if any chance to praise the work of the e.p.a. but i can sure do it now. after eight years of being relentlessly targeted to shut out by the obama administration our farmers and ranchers, manufacturers, energy industries have an administration that will listen to them and work with them. this is what jobs are all about. a lot of talk about the visit that was made to our conference by president trump yesterday. and he talked about most of the time was jobs. we're in a position to correct it. now, what have we done to do that? the ov

trump peepn so pruitt is going to be -- and the same with that price is being measured in by democrats because he's going to go after signature obama law, pruitt is is seen as someone who's going to damage and cripple the regulation president obama has put forward in the environment. democrats want to make sure they make a fuss about that before it goes away. >> another issue for trump's trade. he ran heavily on that issue and doing something about nafta and potentially ripping up these transpacific partnership deal that is pending. today we hear that the trump administration would like to have robert bite heiser as trade representative. what you know? >> is going to be product of a broader trade team. i'm told the key person is trump. he actually wants to personally negotiate trade deals working closely with wilbert ross, his nominee for commerce secretary. you have light house or as part of this trade negotiating team and then others working with him. be a peculiar issue for the trump white house because so often the president delegate's trade, they, they have a focus on it. trump ma

have you met with administrator pruitt? is it typical that you would meet with the administrator or leadership to go over recommendations. >> what are comptroller general likes to do is he likes to meet with all of the new cabinet secretaries and leaders of other offices. gl ways in the process of scheduling a meeting with administrator pruitt and i would go to that meeting as well. >> but that has not been done. >> we have not scheduled it yet. >> you are just like the energy and commerce committee. gentlemen, there is a very disturbing press report that came out a few days ago that the epa has taken the unusual step of putting a political operative in charge of vetting hundreds of millions of dollars in grants. there's little environmental policy experience. [inaudible] it really does appear like this is being politicized. this is from the washington post on september 4. earlier this summer on the same day that senator lisa murkowski of alaska joined with two other republicans in voting down the gop health care bill, epa

as always, i ask that you keep your questions for administer pruitt on topic. once he's finished i'll be back to answer questions of the day. i would note that he has a flight to had to so will keep this relatively short on his end. >> it's good to be with you this afternoon. i want the first began by saying that the president made a very courageous decision yesterday in the on behalf of america and he put america's interest first with respect to environmental agreements and international discussions. i really appreciate his fortitude and i appreciate his leadership in this matter, the discussion of the last several weeks has been one of a thoughtful deliberation. he heard many voices, voices across the wide spectrum of advantage points and the president made a very informed, i think, important decision for the countries benefit. what we have to remember when it comes to environmental agreement and international agreements with respect to things like the paris agreement we have nothing to be apologetic about as a country. we have reduced our co2 footprint to le

that puts a legal duty on administrator pruitt proceed with regulation of carbon dioxide. and unless he wishes to behave illegally then he has to come up with something. i don't think there is much he can come up with that would be more amenable to industry than the clean power plan so i don't think he has a lot of real running room other than to delay for a bit and force that litigation. the problem is if you are acting in bad faith there are a variety of consequences that can ensue in a courtroom. so they are playing with fire here and i think we are going to find that they are going to be burning their fingers in the weeks and months ahead but i think it's mostly going to be litigation. it's going to be holding the funding for these agencies through the process. i don't think they are going to have either the courage or the bad judgment to shut down the government over trying to defend a protection for american citizens on environmental issues so that means we will outflank them when it comes to that issue and i think at the end of april you will see a bunch that satisf

to the honorable scott pruitt, administrator, environmental protection agency. dear scott, it is a pleasure for me to join your friends and colleagues in congratulating you on receiving the edwin meese aired from the rnla. i'm honored with you as this year's recipient. it's a very appropriate tribute to your dedicates years of public service and professional success. tour your years in oklahoma you served your felling he citizens an outstanding attorney general and a member hover at the state not and now serve the entire nation on the president's cabinet and as administrator of the environmental protection agency. in all these capacities you have distinguished yourself by your commitment to constitutional governance and the rule of law. in your current position, as the head of app you have he windshield to protect the environment while preserving the liberties of our people. as lawyer, and as a public official you have both gyp held the highest qualities of profession. i extend my commendation and best wishes for continued success in your important tasks. sincer