mr. wheeler. i would yield to him as much time as he would consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. butterfield: let me thank you, ms. titus for your friendship and leadership and thank you for yielding time to me this afternoon and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. barr leta, thank you as well. i rise in support of my bill, h.r. 3460 that seeks to name the united states courthouse located at 32 east chapel hill street in durham, north carolina as the john hervey wheeler united states courthouse. this bill has the support from my friends in the north carolina congressional delegation and entire durham community. it was favorably reported out of the transportation and infrastructure committee several days ago. john hervey wheeler was a a prominent african-american civil rights lawyer, civic leader, educator, statesman and fill and throw pass and family friend as well. he was born on the campus in advance county, north carolina on new year's day of 1908 as the second child. after the wheeler family relocated to atlanta, georg

mr. wheeler.t, his background. later on we'll be talking to a big energy expert who follows the futures markets on energy very, very closely out of chiically to get the read on all of that. in the meantime, we are focusing on other news, the secretary of state back in north korea trying to get to the bottom of reports that the north koreans might be trying to pull a fast one when it comes to denuclearization efforts, doing quite the opposite. still another one that's gotten the attention of cameras from space, namely satellite images, they're not doing all they say they're doing. the hudson institute, rebecca on this. how big a deal are these allegations or at least suspiciouses? enough to get the secretary of state there, but what do we know? >> they're a big deal. all of these reports coming out are based on evidence that has been collected from open source. not classified information. the u.s. government has had all of this satellite imagery from before. they're not surprised. the administratio

mr. wheeler. we know about all the controversies. we laid them out about mr. pruitt. but mr. wheeler comes in this same agenda ofulling back obama era regular lage,orking closely with different companies. that to me may be the big story here that the pruitt agendaoes on without pruitt. >> and perhaps even moreel effect some people have said some of the regulations are the rollbacks. they face legal challenges and h been overshadowed by all of the controversy around scott uitt. you have someone who is coming in very close to the coal industry who understands the regulations and rule making very wellteill do b at carrying out the president's agenda of rolling back tse things and being more pro-business. >> i think one of the points to make aruut scottt's demise is that people have failed for very different reasons in this administration. aurex tillerson failed b of his inability to develop a relationship with the president. in scott pruitt's case that was never a problem. he hady all accounts a robust relationship with the president. the president stood bhim because of his succe

mr. wheeler, i think, is going to be in the approach.ly very widely respected on the hill and, you know, many people inside the agency say that they have gotten a better feeling from him even if they don't perhaps like his policies. >> this is interesting, because murray, for whom andy wheeler worked, is a coal executive. it's a coal company. scott pruitt as attorney general in oklahoma and prior to that has been very, very chummy with the energy industry. oklahoma, like texas, is a big energy-producing state. it's just kind of weird, because the epa really has as its main mission the idea that energy companies and other big industry in america, if you don't provide regulations for them, they will pollute. that's just the way things go. if you don't have rules, people put their garbage in the water and in the air. it's just strange to have a regulatory agency so focused on the deregulation of the very people it's supposed to be regulating. >> well, let me just state at the outset, ali, first of all, thank you for having me. i don't think

mr. wheeler would be well prepared to pursue a number of reversals. and he served in the epa and on capitol hill as you mentioned and worked for the private sector in many industries that are looking for changes. >> final question, there have been real problems filling this white house, just the white house staff, and people refer to the desperation in filling the staff there and always in the agencies. the personnel information seems dire. >> turning to people in the west wing like bill shine. he has clouds of his own every his entry into the white house due to the relationship with the late roger ailes. and at the federal government level, this is an administrations that -- >> all right. thank you for joining me. >> for more on scott pruitt's long list i am joined by former white house. kristen, i will start with you, it worked. it worked. >> that's very generous. i think that i was one of barrage of nails in this coffin that scott pruitt built himself. so much credit goes to investigative journalist. activist groups and environmental groups like th

mr. wheeler will not be involved in any decision on this proposal. wheeler declined an interview with cnn on this report but sent a statement. under my ethics agreement with the agency, he tells cnn, i will have no involvement with energy fuels incorporated for two years. supporters say that despite his industry ties, wheeler was already confirmed by the senate for his role as deputy administrator. and many conservatives, including senator jim i am homh wheeler's former boss, said they would support him getting the position. his most logical successor could be his worst opponent. . it will be harder when the union spolts turn away and that will be an advantage for wheeler. and jim, according to his tweets, it doesn't appear donald trump's policy is going to change, either. in taking over, trump says, i have no doubt that andy will continue with, more than 100 holes in the cave where the boys are trapped. oxygen levels inside the cave are dropping. matt rivers is inside thailand covering the rescue mission. matt, it seems like time may be running out.

mr. wheeler has come to the lab a number of times and tried out all of our demos, and really think a lot with him about things like band width, somehow 5g going to change the nature behalf v.r. is, privacy, what does it mean to have privacy in v.r.? in v.r., we track your body movements, and how is that going to affect the privacy debate? in addition to knowing what you're typing, they know where you looked, and your body posture, and your facial expression as you were engaging with someone else. so we talked about privacy. talked a bit about this really intense debate, and i don't know the answer to it, but it's important to talk about it, which is what is not ok not ok to do in v.r. judge we can talk about a 2011 u.s. supreme court case in which there was the majority ruled in a case about video game violence of the u.s. supreme court that the trite free speech in video games trumps the ability to regulate by having a warning label for kids to buy these violent video games. the majority said, look, video games are free speech, and we should not regular rate late that at all. i agree wi

mr. wheeler, even though he may have much more conventional religious beliefs and doesn't do crazy things, if he destroys the environment for the benefit of his past and future clients, it's just as bad as the more colorful apocalypse with scott pruitt. >> richard painter, you have the removal of a person, these investigations continue, 15 investigations into scott pruitt's conduct at the epa. how much confidence do you have that this government will learn lessons from what happened here? will there be an apparatus built to deal with these kind of allegations? >> i don't think this administration has learned at all. i believe we've had ethics violations all over the place. we had kellyanne conway shilling for ivanka's clothes on "fox & friends," violating the hatch academy, shilling for roy moore on the white house lawn. they're in denial about ethics violations. i don't think president trump will ever admit that scott pruitt ever did anything wrong, they just got him out of there because it was beginning to look absurd for the purpose of the midterm elections. he was a joke. >> eric lipt

mr. wheeler, who is a new name because he's coming into pruitt's job today, former coal lobbyist who shares his zeal to undue government regulations but unlike pruitt, he's viewed, as mentioned here tonight, a con s sumate washington insider. he could be more effective in implementing trump's deregulatory agenda. i wonder if this is sort of the mike pence piece of the administration? there is all of the controversial and sometimes, frankly, embarrassing conduct around the more flamboyant members of the trump administration. but then beneath that, there is a hard right group of people moving much more quietly. and if so, what, if anything, should be done about that, jennifer? >> well, i think you're right that in essence this is trading up. although scott pruitt had a great reputation, he actually wasn't that effective. a lot of his efforts at deregulation got tangled up in the courts and he really set the ball in motion, but he didn't get all that far on several major initiatives, including his scheme to get rid of car mileage standards. we'll see whether the new insider is a little more sl

mr. wheeler was declined and in a statement, he said, that our actions are the departure from the one-size-fits-allthe past and saves millions of dollars in the regulatory costs. duke energy is steadfast ly saying that testing shows it has not reached the groundwater. >> continual testing is not impacting private water sources. >> reporter: but even if you are living in a dream home, you are still living in a little bit of the fear. >> it was a dream, and unfo unfortunatelily have to the dream somewhere else. >> dr. sanjay gupta. >>> and it is a cover that you have seen millions of times the morph of vladimir putin and president trump and the artist are reveals the story behind it next in the cnn newsroom. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can low

mr. wheeler is now in. we will get information.rts back up on the north lawn for us. more on this. and, remember, the epa chief scott pruitt has an embroiled in controversies about his expenses. theed a mrs. managers said we went past that and then there was the condominium in d.c., he rented this konld minimum, $50 a night, one room, and apparently that was also controversial because it might have been against the rules. the administration overlooked that. he's been under great pressure from even conservatives saying that the epa chief scott pruitt needs to resign. and now he apparently has resigned. we just did a story couple of days ago on a woman who walked up to him in a restaurant and scott pruitt was sitting there, eating. the woman walked up and videotaped it and she posted on it social media, literally reading pruitt the riot act about the list of controversy he was embroiled in and ended by saying you should resign. scott pruitt looked her directly in the eye, did not say a word, but then as she walked back to her table,

mr. wheeler's answer on that. >> no question. >> if there is a hearing, there will be one day for epa administrator, you watch our president he is great at this talks about job killing regulations, and most americans say good foint. we need fewer job killing regulations. if the democrats can say do you think we need more neuro toxins on our food? do you think we need more led in our water? do you think we need more pollution in our air? if you go to a specific regulation, the same american i don't want to kill jobs, would say i don't want my kids poisoned. that's a huge opportunity for democrats to put pro human environmental issues on the agenda instead of this vague indictment of regulations per se. >> but is there a democratic agenda? have you seen that listed? there has been a lot of talk about it but haven't seen it. >> i have three words s vote them out. that's all the democrats have to say in 2018. >> that might be. jeff, as you are watching this, and the president's kind of state of mind, you know, following, the family separation thing clearly is not going away. president thought he could

mr. wheeler lies. and the reason that these corporations are pushing for no pollution controls is they want to make more money, because to actually operate in a clean fashion would mean reducing their pollution. either they have old technologies that can't compete if they reduce their pollution or they don't want to protect, it is not important for them to protect the health of americans. >> when you think about -- >> it's very simple about mouloff. >> money is great. you think of the people like koch brothers that work so hard, do not burn my industry. if i want to burn fossil fushlgs i'll do it. if 45 -- fuels, i'll do it. in private conversation, do you think they have so much money they can protect their own family against dirty water and be fouled air? >> joy, everybody knows the climate is changing. everybody knows that pollution makes people sick or kills them. so this is a question of them believing that i are more important than the american people. that their income is more important than the

mr. henry wheeler, who will be celebrating his 100th birthday on sunday. mr. deutch: henry was born and grew up in buffalo, new york, in the midst of the great depression. he met and married his wife, betty, just before leaving to serve his country in world war ii. during the war, henry served as an intelligence specialist in a number of major campaigns in europe. in one instance, he was captured and held captive by the germans as he gave blood to a fellow officer and he was released after the allied victory in the battle of the bulge. as the anyway did is surrendered, henrys a -- as he -- after he surrendered, henry was awarded both the bronze star and the european, african, middle eastern service medal. he returned home and co-founded a conglomerate of specialized service companies employing p.m.y 5,000 people nationwide -- approximately approximately -- employing approximately 5,000 people nationwide. he moved to fort lauderdale and always paid his success forward, making substantial charitable contributions to various causes, but in a testament to his char

the president tweeted andrew wheeler will step in administrator. >> mr. trump a tweet. have we heard anything directly from pruitt were his reasons for resigning? there was controversy with many of his moves. >> we haven't heard anything publicly from pruitt just yet. we did obtain his resignation letter. in it he wrote it was a blessing to serve under president trump, but he also noted what he called unrelenting attacks on him and his family, saying that they took a sizable toll on them, but he made no mention of any of those scandals. larry and kristen? >> arlette saenz reporting, live in washington, thank you. >>> a judge today rejected a request by the trump administration to block two california laws that protect illegal immigrants. the judge refused to block a law requiring the state to review detention facilities where immigrants are held, and another that prevents local law enforcemenmformation on jail in. but he did put a third law on emises without a warrant. >> a tent camp protest outside the u.s. immigration building in san francisco is now in its fourth day

wheeler's approach leading this agency? >> well, i think we'll see more of the same. you know, mr. pruitt was clearly in bed with industry. his replacement is of the same ilk. this is an administration that has shown itself to be anything but about draining the swamp. i mean the president ran on draining the swamp, but it seems more as if the swamp monsters have taken control of the government. and it is that way whether we look at the epa, whether we look at the president's own enrichment of him and his family during this administration, whether we look at the recent charges against the commerce secretary wilbur ross for insider trading. whether we see the obvious corruption of mr. manafort in running the campaign. i mean this is a bunch of grifters who have taken over the united states government and the standard that has been established over many generations ever administrations has been violated time and time again. there are no ethics in this strairks a administration and that is what the american people have to come to terms with. >> thank you so much for your perspective. >>> in the united kingdom, british police

mr. trump wouldn't montana. igestatt pruitt'snation aid kethe scrutiny over his alleged misuse of federal money and epinveestarigations in congressh wi wheelerahoma senator vo congress.t most >>> new details in the deadly shooting at the eapital-gazette shootingt tayav virginiaewspaper. police say jarrod ramos sentle a er to virginia pilot that arrid yesterday.it is unclear we letter or wther it was addressed to anyonebu t we do know that a reporter who used to work for the capital-gazette whom ramos had sued now works for the virginian pilot. norfolk police have turned the letter over to the fbi. telice he said ramos sent rsraselve the day of theis annapol oopermanenttightencu a plan hoorchanges wo ul visanitme. >> fox5's melanie alnwi live with the details. >> repniter: goodng, guys. certainly a lot of different feelings when it comes to this. one of the things peopleove about the national zoo is that it is so open and accessible but the world has changed and now some of that openness is seen asit a sy risk. now, during peak visiting times of thee year, than 25,000 peoe a day come and visit the national zoo. and it's thean smithsoni only p

andrew wheeler will be the epa's interim leader until you administrator is nominated and confirmed. scott pruitt is the fifth member of president trump's cabinet to be fired or resigned since mr. trump took office. liz, back to you. >> meanwhile, the president and his fifth communication chief, former fox copresident bill shine will fill the post in march. >>> two of california's sanctuary laws will remain in place. us district judge john mendez denied the trump administration's request to immediately halt three state laws. there tended to shield immigrants who are in the country illegally. the judge did put one of those laws on hold, it is intended to protect people at their places of employment. the trump administration is expected to challenge today's ruling. governor brown had this to say -- only congress can chart the path forward, by rising above mindless partisan divisions, and working together to solve this problem. >>> a stolen police cruiser, recovered in the east bay. >> police have plans for the suspect, but what to do with the suspected accomplice found in the backseat? >> a hot, smoggy summer can trigger health trouble for some bay area kids. now, a chance to br

wheeler may be there a while, senate democrats would love the dalai lama to run the epa if mr.rump nominated him. democrats line, you are on. caller: hello. host: you are on. caller: how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think that scott pruitt was a corrupt, who enriched himself at the taxpayers expense, a typical trump administrator. i am glad he is gone. absolutely. host: independent line, greg from ohio. good morning. guy has serious psychological problems, because, there is a point of paranoia and grandiosity, running tactical a best bill had that was bulletproof, running the lights to go to lunch. . i think this guy was nuts and he did a terrible job. there arethe epa, going to be problems down the road for our children with the environment. we have to preserve the environment. i am a hunter. i live in ohio. we have to preserve the environment. i think what he did, the rollbacks, they were just crazy. it is in other areas of the government as well. rollbacks and some of the things obama did, they are not well thought out. even with trump, appointing these judges a

mr. chairman. in a spirit of bipartisan commonsense and modest safeguards that i sought to offer this amendment that would protect the 2015 federal coal ash rule. sadly, late last night, acting e.p.a. administrator wheeler helped cement the toxic legacy of former administrator pruitt's reign over the e.p.a. by rolling back coal ash standards, making this amendment moot. i remind my colleagues that the obama era coal ash rule was not rushed or onerous. some think it didn't go far enough. after years of debate, input if community and industry stake holders, and nearly half a million public comments, the obama administration finalized stringent but pragmatic federal coal ash regulations too deal with post closure requirements, groundwater monitoring and ublic reporting. the pruitt pr posal, announce only five months ago, included very few hearings, very little outreach to the public and last night was finalized. that's warp speed even for the trump administration swamp driven e.p.a. anti-regulation movement. so no, the 2015 federal rule was not rushed. the pruitt rule most certainly was. i also remind my colleagues of the catastrophic 2018 -- 2008 tennessee coal ash bill and why the federal government got