he said epa is required to regulate mercury because epa determined that mercury emissions from power plants pose an otherwise unaddressed significant risk to health and the environment and because controls, options to reduce this risk are available. this statement on mercury risk seems contrary to the legal arguments you supported in the past. is that correct, yes or no? >> i agree with that position that mercury is something that is very dangerous. >> thank you very much. >> should be regulated. >> are you aware the last three administrators have publicly stated the epa is required to regulate mercury from power plants because of health risks, yes or no? >> i believe mercury should be regulated under section 112. >> thank you very much. according to the epa, my time is about to expire, i will hold it there. thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator carper. senator inhofe? >> thank you, mr. chairman. well, i don't think you had adequate time to answer some of the questions that were asked. is there anything you would like to add to elaborate? >> yes, senator. thank you

attorney general. -- epa administrator. the hearing is just under an hour. good morning. i call this business meeting to order. that non informed democrats will be in attendance this morning and effort to intentionally delay and obstruct nomination of attorney general scott pruitt to be the administrator of the environmental protection agency. it is a disappointing turn of events. let's review some history. 1993, -- january 21, 1993, epa administrator nominee carol browner under democratic president bill clinton was confirmed by the senate. this is one day after he took office. 30, 2001, epa administrator nominee chris because whitman under bush was confirmed by the full senate. on january 22, 2009, nominee lisa jackson under democrat president barack obama was twoirmed by the full senate days after he took office. today is february 1 and the minority has now obstructed even having a vote on committee on president donald trump's nominee scott pruitt. i hope this is not the new normal. we cannot afford for the epa to go with

as they started leading the epa. number one, we are going to pay attention to the process. rulemaking matters. consentt going to have degrees, and leave the agency in bypasses rulemaking. we are going to do the work that congress has said we must do to dance those issues. process matters. real engaged in rulemaking, make sure that we do not use the words to regulate, we are going to do so with the keen attention to the role of law. rule of law matters. sometimes we talk about rule of law, we think it is some academic or legal concept. it is not. there is a phrase that i love to use -- the law is about the king. and world law is applied, it --to those are expected of them. conduct and pay attention to the rule of law because we want to make sure that we operate within the freedom the congress has provided us. to operate within the framework of the wall, and not outside the wall. matters, rule of law matters, and let me tell you this. what really matters a lot is federalism. once again --o once again pay attention to t

this will impact future epa administrator nominees. these precedents for this delay will likely have long term impacts after today's nominee has left office. this boycott not only affects the epa, but also prevents this committee from organizing. no one can complain that the trump administration and its policies, if they sabotage the very formation of the committee that it is supposed to conduct the oversight. that is supposed to be condulting the oversight. there are a number of consequences to not having a fully functional epa and a fully function environmental and public works committee. there are key issues for the ep, and the senate epw senate committee that we could and should be working on, including the waers the of the united states policy, cold war legacy pollution cleanup, addressing brown fields and insuringing new t tosco legislation. this boycott is nothing more than political theater and p prevents working on the issues that we care about. the ranking member, and the minority have complained about the nomination process,

the supreme court found the epa did not bother to consider the cost of the epa's own rules, contrary to law. finally, he played about the -- complaint about the answers to nine questions out of 1000 78 1078 questions when thousands , of new questions are pruitt had to refer to the process in oklahoma's opens record act to get a response to the question. here are some examples of the democrat members questions. you can decide whether or not referral to the open records act was appropriate. senator cardin in his 29 point -- 29th question said, "please provide all communications you have had with representatives of agricultural and other companies regarding water quality litigation between arkansas and oklahoma." his 119th question has been a litigation -- litigant or petitioner against the epa. please provide any and all documents including written, electronic correspondence, audio tapes electronic records, , videotapes, photographs, telephone messages, voicemails, emails, facsimiles daily , agendas, calendars, information, discussion either -- whether in person or over the phone, agen

that includes a functioning epa. to do that this committee has to do its work. so at this time i ask for a motion to suspend rules 2 a, 4 and 8 of the rules of the environment and public works committee for the duration of this business meeting. >> i so move. >> is there a second? >> all those in favor. all opposed nay. and the opinion of the chair the ayes have it and rules 2 a, 4 and 8 of rules of committee are suspended for the duration of this business meeting. at this time i would like to call up presidential nomination 44 scott pruitt of oklahoma to be administrator of the environmental protection agency. can i have a motion to approve and report the nomination favorably to the senate? >> i so move. >> is there a second? on this matter i ask for a recorded vote. the clerk will call the roll. [ inaudible ]. >> ms. harris. >> the nomination of attorney general scott pruitt to be epa administrator is approved and reported. next i would like to call up the committee funding resolution which funds for march 1 through february 28 of 2019 in three financial perio

epa has equated impairment with any change. >> encouraged, they next argued that epa's move to includeithin the regulation is not only unfair but illegal since it was never mentioned why congress. -- by congress. dave hawkins he feels, is , overstepping his authority. >> the job of the regulators is to implement the laws congress adopts and not create laws. i think the agency created laws. it seems to be pretty straightforward. don'tother words, if we expressly do something in two weeks, we go back to the court. >> three months before the final deadline, the public comment time officially ends. in addition to the massive legal brief are the written comments of 382 others. arguments of regulated industries, the white house, key members of congress and letter-writing campaigns of opposing environmental groups. by the day's end, a stack of paper seven feet high will be under lock and key. >> with the end of the public comment time, the people of -- have spoken. a vaguely worded law and in perfect scientific information. the utilities industry, fearful that regulation will hamper energy de

the epa has not cleaned it up. there is important work to protect and provide leadership in the space. what's happened is the previous of menstruation was so focused on climate change and on co2 that some of the priorities are left behind. up thoseean communities. we come as republicans, don't have anything to be apologetic about when it -- with respect to the environment. we always believed that you can grow jobs, grown economy while being a good steward of the economy -- of the environment. that's what we are tasked to do. [applause] most what is the interesting facts that many of you know is that, when he was attorney in oklahoma, you sued the pa 14 times -- the epa 14 times. scott: deservedly. gina: do you have questions about that with the people you are working with now? scott: it came up in the confirmation hearings a few times. [laughter] oklahoma,he state of texas, was raising our any other state in the country sue the pa? one, because the epa was working inconsistent with the statutes. we are going to dis

the epa has a very, very important role. i think what's happened over the last several years, wolf, is a disregard, a displacement of state authority, sometimes in direct contravention to the statute. congress has been very specific over the years to give specific authority to the states. and what's happened is you've had an attitude in washington, d.c., over the last several years that just wants to treat the states as mere vessels of federal will. that must change. we've got to create a partnership, not an adversarial relationship. the president is committed to that. those partners across the country to ensure clean air and clean water, they stand ready to be a partner with us and we're going to emphasize that as we lead at the epa. >> in some states as you well know, for example, california, regulations are actually a lot stricter than federal laws require. if you return regulatory power to the states, which clearly you're recommending, does that mean you're willing to accept, for example, california's vehicle emissions s

it does not pass its first critical test from epa leadership.om the first deadline, johnny pearson is back at square one. upset over the draft's omissions, barbara seizes her moment. >> the first draft of the regulation was missing a critical piece of the puzzle. that was all the future development that can have an impact on visibility. the first draft of the regulations totally ducked the issue. >> this package is one of several tools. >> brown alerts hawkins to the dangers of not regulating future polluters of the parks. to her, this issue should never have been compromised in the first place. >> it was like alice in wonderland. we would be working to clean up the old sources but not catching up because of all the new pollution from the new sources. we would be on a treadmill. >> the demands of the park service team do not make them of the most popular figures with the epa staff, but controlling future pollution is reinstated within the regulation by a sympathetic hawkins. a major victory for barbara brown. >> time and energy to sit down and p

is someone who agrees with me that fundamental reform needs to be made at the epa. who are ardently backing him are big business leaders, the fossil fuel industry and people like you whom, as we have established in this conversation, have a background in think tanks which are to a certain extent sponsored by those sorts of groups. well, it is just a fact that elections can change directions and this election i think surprised people and there are a lot of people that are having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that we have a candidate who ran on these issues and the american people elected him and he won in states that are still based in manufacturing and energy intensive industries, that disagree with the bi—coastal urban elite and every person that you have quoted or referred to i would say is a part of the bi—coastal urban elite, people who think that they know better than the people who actually have to deal with environmental issues and who also think that they don't really need energy, that their careers sitting in front of computer screens manipulati

i worked for epa and the national parks service in the budget world. science,politics in ladies and gentlemen, and it is donnelly democrat. there is very little known about our ocean spirit we know more about space than we know about our oceans. i think we need to stop wasting and all ofthe epa the nonsense regulation, which a lot of them are, believe it or not, we went through acid rain, remember that? how horrible that was? and everybody was afraid. that turned out not to be a big problem. we need to focus on what is happening now we need to focus on hazardous waste, which is the biggest problem in our environment. the epa made a big show about this summer, saying they polluted a river in the nevada area. it is horrible. scientists are wonderful people. they tried really hard, they are underpaid, some people with masters degrees make less than clerks in the government. the thing is -- we need research and development. this is america. we are in the 21st century. we have some of the greatest minds in the world, and we also have connections with the gr

i was asked to lead the transition team on epa because in fa ct transition team on epa because in fact my views largely respond to the views that the president campaigned on and that he promised the american people he would do if he was elected. so, yes, ithink that people he would do if he was elected. so, yes, i think that we share most views on energy and the environment. let's talk big picture sort of mindset before we dig down into the detail of environmental policy making. in terms of your approach and the president's, and i t“; the over % the gigggggg. ;f.;.':; 1: if. ' a do £--------- when a scientists, when politicians in the western world, when environmental campaigners all talk about the urgent need to de—carbonise the global economy, do you think they are wrong? yes, i do, andi you think they are wrong? yes, i do, and i think that the campaign that we have just witnessed and i think that the campaign that we havejust witnessed in and i think that the campaign that we have just witnessed in the united states is interesting, because it is the first presidential campaign that

epa is even less than that. can't imagine you would want to cut that. , you have putica for 40, 50 years, 60 years, you've been putting money into an insurance program which is called social security that the congress has been spending as part of the budget. focus our budget on where the need really is. mary jo in go to washington, maryland. caller: impeach, impeach coming page. everything that comes out of his mouth is right it down for impeachment. we are not afraid of isis. we are not afraid of anything right now that we will need to west another military -- need to take care of the .a.,rans and improve the v which is a single-payer health system, by the way. he will not be able to repeal any health care or create one. i hope the democrats have the nerve to send that signal to us because we are supporting the movement right now. stand up and tell this so-called human being that he is a liar. democrats, i want to see what you are going to do. the only thing he is going to do when he gives his speech is put his

epa colleagues. i am honored to have the opportunity today to present to you our new administrator scott pruitt. give him another round. [ applause ] >> as you know, administrator pruitt comes to us from the state of oklahoma where most recently he's been the attorney general. prior to his service as attorney general administrator pruitt was in the state senate of oklahoma for eight years. he originally held from the state of kentucky. he earned his bachelors degree from georgetown college in kentucky then moved to oklahoma where he garage a waraduated fr law school, before he practiced law for a private firm in tulsa oklahoma, administrator pruitt and his wife of 27 years marilyn are the devoted parents of two children mckenna and son katie, got to love those names, in addition to his years of experience in the public sector is also a successful entrepreneur. as a co-owner and general managing partner of oklahoma city's aaa minor league baseball league affiliate red hawks he's helped become one of t

that is that we expect of the head of the epa.ese guys are not supposed to be doing the eating of private industry. private industry has their own lawyer. the head of the epa is supposed to represent all americans, not just the corporations yet you have this man who has basically spent his life's work advancing the industry, targeting and attacking efforts to regulate the toxin of mercury, other serious pollutants, trying to undermine efforts to address the harms to our climate and more. that email is one of many that shows this pattern that we see of this cut and paste idea for scott pruitt and his team. amy: so talk about the relationship that is exposed through these thousands of pages of emails that you got through a lawsuit. a judge ruling, what was it, last thursday, last week that these should be released immediately and the senate moving very quickly to confirm pruitt before the males were delivered to you -- the emails were delivered to you. >> the judge ordered the first , that orderents, came out on thursday afternoon,

very hard to get everybody in line. >> ed: it's not just the epa.hey gave campaign money to hillary clinton over donald trump. look at this list. agriculture department, 99.4% of the campaign contributions of employees want to hillary conference, clinton education department, 99.7%. when you say scott pruitt is going to have a job in his hands, the epa was well over 90% as well. what are these pure cats going to do to try to undermine him and stop the president's agenda as well? ripping out regulations that the president sally , the economy is going to take off. >> ed: i think >> the civil service has become a special interest agenda with their own agenda. they are supposed to be experts in administration who know how to carry out policies. so it seems to me that they have a chance to my choice to make. will they be professional civil servants or are they going to be activists. if they are activists, they should either retire. >> ed: is there a way for scott pruitt to drain the swamp. when you talk about civil service protections, that is code for t

>> yes, sir. >> the epa regulators were putting people out of jobs by the hundreds of thousands. and regulations and permits started treating our wonderful small farmers and small businesses as if they were a major industrial polluter. they treated them horribly,

up for a bloodbath inside the epa. think that doesn't sound like that is what could be happening. epa employees, they can do their jobs if they are asked to do anything unlawful or unethical, they should not, but if they are simply trying to undermine a new administration because they disagree with the policies, they should not be doing that. they should be resigning in protest. that is the option they have. but the idea they are simply going to not do their jobs or do their jobs poorly or try to undermine the administration under matters of policy, that undermines the whole idea of civil for service for the civil service was put into effect to prevent the sort of spoils system or unqualified people getting jobs handed out as patronage. but if the supposedly apolitical employees are acting political, you're going to have to see a reevaluation of the way we structure these civil service protections. >> jon: donald trump famously campaigned on a slogan of draining the swap in washington, is this the kind of resistance he

he's spent his whole professional career deriding the epa and suing the epa.of today he is in charge of it. but you know what? interesti ining thing here, we' still going to get those e-mails. scott pruitt is still subject to that court order. he still really does have to hand other hundreds of those e-mails between his office and oil and gas companies. has to hand over hundreds of them by tuesday. has to hand over thousands more over the next ten days. for whatever reason he has been illegally withholding those thousands of e-mails that document his relationship and his communications with the oil and gas industry which, of course, he'll now be dealing with directly as our new epa administrator so, yeah, scott pruitt is taking over as head of the epa but that means scott pruitt will start his brand new job at the epa with his first big scandal already waiting for him when he walks in the door. ooh, boy. >> so pruitt for epa? oh, boy. what on earth are they fighting here? whatever it is... it's hunting. the great wall. rated pg-13. that has everything to do wi

>> yes, sir. >> the epa regulators were putting people out of jobs by the hundreds of thousands. and regulations and permits started treating our wonderful small farmers and small businesses as if they were a major industrial polluter. they treated them horribly, horribly. if you want to build a new home for example you have to worry about getting hit with a huge fine if you fill in as much as a puddle just a puddle on your lot. i've seen it. in fact when it was first shown to me i said you're kidding around you? but they weren't kidding, in wyoming a rancher was fined $37,000 a day for digging a small watering hole for his cattle. these abuses were an why such incredible opposition to this rule. from the hundreds of organizations took place in all 50 states. it's a horrible, horrible rule. has sort of nice name but everything else is bad. i've been hearing about it for years and years, i didn't know i would necessarily be in this position to do something about it but have been hearing about it for years. with today's executive order i'm directing epa to take action to pave actio

the epa has lost its way. it caused huge contamination the epa itself caused. i'm so delighted that scott pruitt as attorney general of oklahoma has been nominated. we'll get him to the floor and we'll get him confirmed and at work soon. melissa: their chief complaint scott pruitt he didn't answer questions sent his way. i did a little digging. they submitted 1078 questions to him to answer, which seems a little bit excessive. you would blame them for that maybe. at the same time, you did something very similar when it came to gina mccarthy, as epa administration in 2013. turn about is fair player. >> answered questions for 6.5 hours. over one how questions. we're talking about what happens when a new president comes into office. when bill clinton came into office his new epa director was on the job day two. when george bush came into office, the new epa director, first week. when barack obama came into office, his epa director, the first week. so i think it is absolutely wrong of the democrats to obstruct. we have a newly-elected president. he ought to be able

and that's what the epa was like under president ronald reagan.the now mostly forgeten failures and scandals of his time in office, one of the ones we are now remembering is the way the epa was run at the beginning of his presidency, specifically under this epa administrator. she was the first female administrator of the epa. she didn't last long. she had to resign after 22 months on the job. after all, there was the idea to use big swaths of the ocean to burn our toxic waste. one of the biggest controversies of her tenure involved super fund sites because this is how president reagan and his epa administrator handled super fund sites. >> the people of glenn avon, california, may owe their lives to the big trucks that haul away spring water from the edge of town. the water is laced with lead and pcps and other poisons. and the trucks, paid for by the state of california, weren't hauling off thousands of gallons of water a day now, glenn avon would be uninhabitable. most of the money comes from a special tax on chemical and oil companies. $1.6 bill

he sued the epa 14 times.n just yesterday, an oklahoma judge ruled that pruitt had to release 3,000 e-mails that were communications between fossil fuel companies and the state. and the democrats wanted to postpone voting on his nomination. the republicans would not have it. so he has become epa administrator. but for people -- some people within the epa, they are very, very afraid because they're afraid now that politics will trump science. and that, they think, is bad news for the country and bad news for the world as it tries to address the issue of climate change. >> anne thompson, thanks so much. great to have you here on a friday afternoon. appreciate it. >>> as we saw the president arriving in palm beach there and getting into his motorcade where he'll head to mar-a-largo for the weekend. >>> ahead, a review of president trump's administration and a contentious press conference and everything in between. stick around. made it through many market swings. sure we could travel, take it easy... but we've ne

but first i have a few small gifts to welcome you to the epa. first i would like to present you -- won't need to look too closely to see it. mr. pruitt: unfortunately my eyes are not the best. >> this is a lapel pin for the epa that you can proudly wear as you represent the agency. mr. pruitt: thank you very much. >> secondly. when you go out into the field, you will need this hat. [applause] >> not only mark you as the representative and administrator of epa but it's really good from protecting you from the sun as well. i suspect you know that from your baseball years. so thank you very much for joining us. we are so pleased to have you. mr. pruitt: thanks, catherine. thank you so much. [applause] mr. pruitt: well, thank you, catherine. it has been a joy to meet catherine and spend time with her. i do thank you for the hat. i'm excited about being in a city that actually has a major league baseball team because that's going to be exciting in the evening to enjoy some good baseball and i'll make sure i wear this hat as we attend those games. and

we will see what the actual numbers are, and the epa, and you talk about cutting the epa, a lot of epa numbers goes to the states, and can you talk about shifting expenses going to the states when you talk about cutting the epa. >> president trump just sat down with our friends over at fox and he spelled out how the math is going to work in his mind. let me play this for you, senator. >> sure. >> if you cut all the money from epa and the state, that's about $50 billion? >> i think the money will come from a revved up economy, and you look at the numbers we were doing, we were probably a gdp of a little more than 1%, and if i can get that up to three or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game. it's a whole different ball game. and that's what we are looking to do. >> senator, what do you think of that explanation, if he can get the gdp up to three 3%, and the money flows in? >> that's true. but there's no causal position between what he is proposing to do and increasing the gdp. there's -- growth is one of the important ways to get out of this, and the question is are the polici

the epa wants to put it in place.e gotten into effect, any yards 20 yards within a stream of my property, i have to ask my government's permission to move that rock. do you have any idea to ask permission from a government bureaucrat who is 50 miles away and you have to have a study done about how you move the rock. >> it's going to create a big government. that's what the republicans don't want. every puddle is not, you know -- stuart: we are glad to hear you say that. >> it's true. stuart: yaw may back on the truth. thanks a lot o. a bill to replace and repeal obamacare would be on his date early to mid-march, he's tweeting this this morning. despite the long delays by the democrats in finally approving tom price, the repeal and replace rent of obamacare is moving fast. joining us now american action forum president. do you share the president's optimism that you can get a bill out there in place by mid-march? >> i certainly do. the contours have been apparent for quite sometime, in the house. there have been meetin

and that's what the epa was like under president ronald reagan.ostly forgeten failures and scandals of his time in office, one of the ones we are now remembering is the way the epa was run at the beginning of his presidency, specifically under this epa administrator. she was the first female administrator of the epa. she didn't last long. she d to resn after 22 months on the job. after all, there was the idea to use big swaths of the ocean to burn our toxic waste. one of the biggest controversies of her tenure involved super fund sites because this is how president reagan and his epa administrator handled super fund sites. >> the people of glenn avon, california, may owe their lives to the big trucks that haul away spring water from the edge of town. the water is laced with lead and pcps and other poisons. and the trucks, paid for by the state of california, weren't hauling off thousands of gallons of water a day now, glenn avon would be uninhabitable. most of the money comes from a special tax on chemical and oil companies. $1.6 billion should be

some of the regulations coming out of the epa, a have cleared that up. that it is a diminishing return. he was mentioning the regulations that protect us -- there are some that protect us. but you get to a certain point where they close government off and that is where we are today. look at dodd frank. the idea of. frank was to protect us against evil wall street. but in reality, it has closed economy to regular americans. i nearly lost my business because i lost access to small business loans that i needed to be able to control my business. i ended up laying off half of my people. because the laws that we have in place right now protect those on the inside. it should be open. you should be able to grow a business and live the american dream. i would much rather take the economy away from big government and put it back in the hands of the local people. let it grow and thrive locally. the problem we have is that when regulations are built and grown in washington, d.c., inside a bubble separate from the average american citizen out there -- they become unr

he says it's going to take some time and a lot of changes that will take place at the epa. be a good listener but he does obviously want to make regulation so that they are regular. there's a lot of work to be done but we heard scott pruitt speak to the crowd, or very enthusiastic crowd. we are obviously here live. we will be back with much more after the break . . . >> welcome back to atlanta where the democratic national committee is meeting here to try and pick a new chairperson. a lot of folks will tell you that it's really a proxy war for the future of the democratic party. if you want proof that the democrats are divided, well, check this out, on the first ballot they couldn't figure out who was going to be their chairperson for a little perspective on this let's bring back in robert patillo. cbs radio 1380 on your a.m. dial. mano a mano. >> yes. >> ellison was behind pÉrez and now it's essentially the establishment, the obama folks behind tom pÉrez versus keith ellison and the bernie sanders folks. what's interesting to me is that ellison is the progressive part of t

. >> one of the end of america's tailpipe. >> to protest outside of the epa and a union urging its epabers to tell their senators to vote no, despite the resistance, a fresh tweet from the agency. for the first time in weeks, welcoming scott pruitt. i'm rene marsh reporting. >>> still ahead, another twist in the death of the north korean leader's half brother. one suspect said she thought the entire thing was a prank. details on that straight ahead. pain used to shut me down during pick-up games. but with odor free blue-emu continuous pain relief spray, i can box out any muscle or joint pain immediately. blue-emu continuous pain relief spray, it works fast and you won't stink. this is not a screensaver.game. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ mobility is very important to me. that's why i use e*trade mobile. it's on all my mobile devices, so it suits my mobile lifestyle. and it keeps my investments fully mobile... even when i'm on the move. sign up at etrade.com and

not just the epa, cuts at the state department. does that get made up with the intelligence the military can gather? seems to me, the state department isn't necessarily a place i want to start cutting at. hang on, i think we've got breaking news with the president again issuing another executive order. here we go. general, stay with me. >> keeping them busy today. >> yeah. [laughter] >> youell us when you're ready, folks. okay? so this is historically black colleges and universities executive order. very important to all of us. this group has been fantastic, many of which we were with yesterday and really developed something very special. thank you, thank you all for being here. thank you, mr. vice president, mike, for being here. a very important moment and a moment that means a great deal to me. this month has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate african-american history, and to begin working together to create a better future for african-americans and universities and colleges and everything that is african-american. today

so what comes of scott pruitt, the epa, another nominee?ll tell you next. >> bill: there was another expected democratic protest in committee, this time over the nominee to run the epa, but the room is starting to fill up. so drop in here, senator brasso is talking. >> bill: it's disappointing they chose that course of action. we will not allow it to obstruct. this committee has conducted a thorough and fair process of reviewing attorney general pruitt's nomination. that includes a hearing of unprecedented length, number of questions and timely responses from the nominee. it is unprecedented for the minority to delay an epa administrator for an incoming president to this extent. we had an election last november. the people spoke, and now it is time to set up a functioning government. that includes a functioning epa. to do that, this committee has to do its work. so at this time i ask for a motion to suspend rules 2a, 4 and 8 of the rules of the environment and public works committee for the duration of this business meeting. >> so moved. >>

a man who spent years suing the epa, taking the top spot in the epa. >> they are 54 and the nays are 46. the motion is agreed to. >> the senate republicans and the two democrats voted for pruitt while the environmentalists and the senate democrats held an all- out, all-night effort to delay the vote. and some who donated to his political campaigns. the sierra club and other opponents of the 48-year-old republican say he spent six years as attorney general of oklahoma during which he expressed some doubt about global warming. in his confirmation hearing, he would adhere to the rule of law. >> and regulators are suppose to make things regular to fairly and enforce their rules, not pick winners or losers. >> reporter: pruitt filed 14 lawsuits against the epa. >> some of those lawsuits are still out there. >> dan farber says his lawsuits challenge epa regulations on epa emission and waste water clean up. pruitt won't be able to change the law. >> they view it as nothing, but a burden to the economy. they don't think that it is serving any useful purpose. >> reporter: pruitt will have pow

epa so called waters of the u.s. rule is one of the worst examples of federal regulation.has truly run amuck. it is one of the rules, most strongly opposed by farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers across our land. it's prohibiting them from being allowed to do what they're supposed to be doing. it's been a disaster. the clean waters act says the epa can regulate navicable waters, those that affect interstate commerce. few years ago the epa decided that can mean nearly every puddle or every ditch on a farmer's land or anyplace else that they decide. right? massive power grab. epa's regulators were putting people out of jobs by the hundreds of thousands and regulations and permits started treating our wonderful small farmers and small businesses as if they were a major industrial polluter. they treated them horribly. horribly. if you want to build a new home, you have to worry about getting hit with a huge fine if you fill in as much as a puddle, just a puddle on your lot. i have seen it. when it was first shown to me i said, you're kidding, aren't you? but they weren't

top of his agenda is to reduce the role of the epa.ral of oklahoma, he sued the epa more than a dozen times, so here's a poacher turned gamekeeper and he has been setting out his thoughts today on what the epa should look like. he has been striking a conciliatory note and saying you have to listen. but people are worried that really, there are big changes coming. what do you think are some of the issue is particularly held by the obama administration that mr trump might wa nt to administration that mr trump might want to roll back? there are two issues clearly been reported on at the moment. one is called the waters of the us role, which many republicans see as an overreach of the epa, regulating areas they don't need to do. the other is the clean power plant. this was the centrepiece of president obama's attem pts centrepiece of president obama's atte m pts to centrepiece of president obama's attempts to reduce carbon emissions from the us. it is likely that president trump and scott pruitt will want to overturn this. us president don

opposing president trump's pick to lead the epa.s in the senate were still at it a few minutes ago as we were looking at those live pictures. senators bringing in props like a wheel of giveaways, the hash tag hold the floor trending in our area this morning. earlier we heard from senator duckworth. take a >> but that's why i'm here tonight. that's why i am opposing him because i put the needs of our children, the needs of our environment, the needs of our national security in front of the needs of the bio fuel industry. we need an -- >> even with all this pruitt is expected to be confirmed later today. democrats are a minority in the senate. the one republican that said that she will not support pruitt is susan collins of maine. an oklahoma judge has ordered pruitt release thousands of e-mails saying his office denied access to public records. as of yesterday nbc had reported approximately 400 of those e-mails had been released. >> they're a very powerful nuclear country and so are we. if we have a good relationship with russia, tha

environmental grurpz and hundreds of former epa my ease have been fighting the nomination. they fear he will put politics over science and try to gut the agency. illinois senator tommy duckworth iraq war veteran explained while she'll vote against him. >> i seen firsthand the price we pay for dangerous dependent oil imported have adversaryyes i fought a war over oil already. >> and now, a state judge in oklahoma ordered pruit to release thousands of email changes he had with oil and gas executives. people want exactly the sort of dealings he's had and what promises he made. we don't know. but those emails are supposed to be released on tuesday. however, it appears this confirmation vote will probably go through today. live on capitol hill i'm melanie alnwick, "fox5 local news". >> thank you you very much, melanie, president trump has new knowledge any for labor secretary former justice department alexander costa after the first nominee puzder withdrew on thursday. he would be the first hispanic member of trump's cabinet. >> white house has to look elsewhere for national sec