mr. pruitt: we have also grown our gdp. we have always believed we can be about job growth, job creation, stewardship, and taking care of the environment. we can do that collectively. it simply is a false choice to say we must choose between the two. adopt ashat we have to a country and recognize that we have that obligation as we go forward. the president is leaving us in a substantial way. >> we teased a little bit about waters in the united states. mr. pruitt: and the president talked about it. likes for have become regulatory purposes -- links -- lakes for regulatory purposes. why is it so significant for you to take action? mr. pruitt: one of the greatest examples of one of the past administrations taking a step for power is the rule. >> for those who may not know, what is the united states water act? mr. pruitt: the clean water act gives us certain authority as an agency, and there is a definition called waters of the united states. the reason that is important is because if you do find that broadly, if you stretch it

mr. pruitt. thank you, mr. chairman. >>we will now hear from the honorable scott pruitt, the administrator of the environmental protection agency. i'd like to remind the administrator, your full written testimony will be made part of the official hearing today. i look forward to hearing your testimony. welcome to the community. >>chairman barrasso, ranking member carper, members of the committee, senators, it's good to see you. it's been too long, as was mentioned by senator carper and i'm looking forward to the exchange and discussion today. as you know, i was confirmed by this senate in mid-february of last year and as i began my journey at the agency, i took the opportunity to spend time with the entire agency, and i did, in fact, senator carper, mention three priorities by which we would govern and lead the agency. the first was rule of law. and rule of law does matter. rule of law is something that people take for granted, but as we administer the laws at the agency, the only power that we possess is the power that y

mr. 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

mr. pruitt. you have repeatedly stated that you want to follow the rule of law and work with states to protect our environment. sadly, you failed at both when it comes to clean air. clean air act requires epa to partner with the states to address cross state air pollution. these protections are critical for downwind states like delaware and our neighbors. are critical for downwind states not just like delaware but others up and down the east coast. we are located at what i call the end of america's tailpipe. instead of working with states to address this issue, your actions are making things worse. for example, you rejected a request afrom the northeastern states to coordinate with the upwind states to rereduce ozone pollution. you've also failed to answer at least six state pollutions, several of which are from delaware, that ask epa to require upwind power plants to install or consistently operate already installed pollution controls. last week, you issued a memorandum to -- like arsenic, like

mr. pruitt doesn't understand is the people talking to him in coach are voters. and so many of these people who work for donald trump don't understand the meaning of being a public servant. think think they are coming to serve at the trough, they are the swamp creatures making it work. >> pruitt has cited threats to his security, either real or perceived that led him to have a security detail which the size and scope of also put him in the news. this is the nagging thing. we listed the issues the white house has. this is the nagging issue that stays in the news and rolling out. >> absolutely. again you have price earlier, two more. you have three instances. i think it does raise the question, it can happen in any administration. go back to bush, his chief of staff was going to stamp shows and he was forced out. but when you have guidelines like rick just read, it does beg the question, are they really emphasiing this to folks? are they saying it's a point that matters? if you have three cases you get the idea this is not emphasized. >> that reference to stamp sho

mr. pruitt likes to fly first class on the taxpayers' dime. ne stretch last june, tax pair funded cost $90,000. they want to look for cuts, maybe scott shouldn't be flying first class but maybe sit next to the constituents he represents. president trump wants to cut the budget by $3 billion. we need to prioritize but doesn't look like mr. pruitt is capable of doing it from 40,000 feet in the air the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to share a few examples of how the tax cut and jobs act is helping businesses in georgia's 3rd district which is helping them to grow and re-invest in their workers. i visited custom truck and body works. this is a unique company that builds specialty vehicles for first responders. because of the tax cuts, they have hired new workers and beginning a facility expansion and told me they are looking for folks to fill positions today. this isn'

mr. pruitt. >> the costs are minuscule compared to everything else, of course.he message that it sends is is directly in contradiction with what trump was supposed to represent. here we have these d.c. insider elitists misusing your money. this should be a government of the people. but this administration seem os to turn a blind eye. it's not scott pruitt. tom price was brought down by this. and we have this new report. >> it's an inspector general report on veterans affairs. >> so this report is rather wild. essentially, they took a trip to europe in which he brought his wife. and they were publicly saying that this was all done above board. it was cleared by the internal ethics department. that the receipts for a trip to wimbledon got them this tickets. . it turns out to have been a lie. they were not even friends. they couldn't find text messages. they falsified e-mails that would justify the reason for the trip being a reward or an award er ceremony. and the cost of the trip was far greater than what scott pruitt had. they were caught. they had been caught.

mr. pruitt the other day. he asked me, what did we need in the clean unwater act? the definition of navigable waters. i said he has the land better than anyone else. especially better than the people looking at it from a computer. and got to be right out and there and i'll pick up and simply be able to identify what navigable waters are and waters of the us. and if we can do that, we can take a huge financial burden off of our farmers. we can create more jobs, add to our communities and were not going to, my land, every piece of it is like my house. i will not do anything to destroy or hurt my land for the water around it because i want my great great grandchildren to be able to be there. rex senator. >> stick with unanimous consent request mr. chairman. to submit additional documents related to impacts on farming and ranching communities for the record. >> without objection. >> and again to say to our president and witnesses, thank you for joining us today. >> other members may submit questions for the record. we ask that you respond quickly. the record of this he

mr. pruitt, the director of e.p.a. is coming from. so with that in mind, i'm going to go to my remarks right now anexpress that it's very unfortunate that the is a -- there is an objection to advancing president trump's nomination of bill northey to be under secretary at the department of agriculture all because of unrelated concerns of the renewable fuel standard which is a law passed by congress and obviously administered by the e.p.a. i'm very disappointed that a highly qualified and honorable man like bill northey is being held up for an issue unrelated to his position. secretary northey enjoyed, as you heard my colleagues say, unanimous support from the senate agriculture committee and has the support of numerous agriculture groups from around the country. and then getting to the r.i.n.'s issue and my feeling that that's not a legitimate reason for either holding up this nomination or for the bankruptcy that's been referred to or for any other refinery that has trouble. i think it's a manufactured and baseless rumor that the r.f.

mr. pruitt the other day. he asked me, what did we need in a clean water act? definition of navigitable waters. i said a farmer knows his land better than anybody else anywhere, especially people looking at it from a computer. we ought to be able to be right up out in that field that pickup and simply be able to identify what are navigitable waters and waters of the u.s. we could take a huge financial burden off our farmers, add to our communities and we're not going to -- my land, every piece of it is like my house. i would not do anything to destroy or hurt my land or the water around it, because i want my great, great grandchildren to be able to be there. >> thank you. senator carper? >> just a quickie. mr. chairman, a request to submit additional documents related to environmental regulatory impacts on farming and rarchling communities for the record. >> without objection. >> and, again, to say to our friends, witnesses, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you all. other members may submit questions for the record and we ask that you respond qu

mr. pruitt on the show talking about the recent bankruptcy of the pennsylvania oil refiner, mr., senator,disagree with him about why the refinery was closed, can you give us more on that? >> absolutely, first of all, he's saying that there ought to be changes, back in november 2017 his own agency decided that there didn't need to be any changes because the way the market is working perfectly. what's wrong with the eaght oldest refinery in america is that they can't compete. they used to get oil fairly cheap by north dakota. north dakota has a pipeline they can send oil through to other further refining and it's not going to philadelphia. that's one example. the other example is that this refinery sold last fall and they could have gone into refining and -- and mixing ethanol with petroleum as the law requires an they decided not to do it and those companies that have decided to mix ethanol with petroleum are operating very equitably and efficiently under this system. so there's a lot of bad management decisions made by pes refinery. stuart: and you are the senator from iowa and iowa is a

mr. president, your net members have been working diligently over the last year. pruitt epa administrator here. we have secretary, we have we have aross and crumbhat will fix the bling in are a structure income we look forward to getting to work. you,dent trump: thank elaine. scott pruitt, can you talk about the virnment and how we maintain perfect clean better than ever envirn president and at the same time go quickly. >> mr. president, as the mayor said, you said washington will and i think her hit on area that is important. that is water infrastructure. think about safe drinking water in this country. small town counties across the withry need investment respect to the wear treatment fa cycle willing ty this is a major package i want to ectowhat governor said earlier. we look looing at permitting the of 2018 we'll process every permit up or down. then, that combined with the changes we'll make with this legislation to have outside time period of two years is radically going to transform how be see investment to this package. your leadership has been extraordinary, mr.

mr. president, your cabinet members have been working very diligently are over the last year. we have epa administrator pruitt here. we have secretary zinke, and we have secretary ross, and we have plan that will fix the crumbling infrastructure and we look forward to getting to work. >> are thank you, elaine. and scott pruitt, can you talk about the environment and how we maintain a perfect, clean, better than ever environment and at the same time go quickly. >> yes, mr. president, at as the mayor said that from vicksburg that washington is going to be a partner and he hit on a water infrastructure, when you think of the drinking water, and small towns and counties need investment with respect to the water treatment facilities, and this is a major part of the package. i want to echo what governor brian said earlier, we are looking tatter p mitting of the epa by the end of 2018 that we will process every permit up or down in six months and combined with the changes of the legislation to have an outside period of two years is radically going to transform how we see investment for this package. the leadership h

mr. president, your cabinet members have been working very diligently the last year. we have epa administrator pruitt here. we have secretary zinke. we have secretary ross and we have a plan that will fix the crumbling infrastructure and we look forward to getting to work. >> thank you, elaine. scott pruitt, could you talk about the environment and how we maintain a perfect, clean, better than ever environment at same time go quickly. >> mr. president, as the mayor just said from vicksburg, you said washington will now be a partner. i think he hit on an area that is very important. that is water infrastructure. when you think about safe drinking water in this country, small towns, counties across it country need investment with respect to their water treatment facilities this is major part of the package. i want to echo what governor bryant said earlier. we are looking at epa end of 2017 we will process every permit up and down in six months. that combined with changes we're making with the legislation to have outside time period of two years, racedally going to transperform how we see investment in

pruitt and watch him squirm. fortunately, when senator sheldon whitehouse tried to do that, he fumbled it. >> you told mr.pbell, "i believe that donald trump in the white house would be more abusive to the constitution than barack obama. and that's saying a lot." do you recall saying that? >> i don't, senator. >> would you -- >> and i don't echo that today at all. >> i guess not. >> given your comments about hubris -- >> afraid i lost it. [ light laughter ] we have -- i'm having technical difficulties. >> seth: oh, my god, democrats you're not even good at being nerds. [ light laughter ] you use an iphone like dads trying to take a prom photo. "how does this thing work? oh, no, i accidentally snapchatted myself." [ laughter ] nonetheless, pruitt's evolution from trump critic to lackey very much captures the modern gop in a microcosm as trump has become more authoritarian, more unhinged, more lawless. the gop has only gotten more protective of him. just take the secret memo house republicans voted to release claiming to expose wrongdoing by the fbi in its investigation of the trump campaign. the memo is re