{"id":27868,"date":"2017-02-02T11:22:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T17:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=27868"},"modified":"2017-02-02T11:22:05","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T17:22:05","slug":"republicans-outmaneuver-democratic-boycott-to-allow-senate-vote-on-oklahomas-scott-pruitt-for-epa-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/02\/02\/republicans-outmaneuver-democratic-boycott-to-allow-senate-vote-on-oklahomas-scott-pruitt-for-epa-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Outmaneuver Democratic Boycott to Allow Senate Vote on Oklahoma\u2019s Scott Pruitt for EPA Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27869\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-27869\" alt=\"Empty chairs in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee mark Democrats' boycott of a vote to advance the nomination of Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/02\/senate-epw-boycott-620x348.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/02\/senate-epw-boycott-620x348.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/02\/senate-epw-boycott.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/02\/senate-epw-boycott-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/02\/senate-epw-boycott-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/02\/senate-epw-boycott-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">C-SPAN<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Empty chairs in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee mark Democrats&#39; boycott of a vote to advance the nomination of Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>With no Democrats in the room, U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday voted unanimously to approve the nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/305784339&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more-->Republicans in the Environment and Public Works Committee voted to suspend committee rules to defeat a two-day boycott by Democrats who say Pruitt is unfit to serve as the nation\u2019s top environmental regulator.<\/p><p>Senate Democrats did not like Pruitt\u2019s performance at his <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/01\/19\/pruitt-denounces-regulations-and-distances-himself-from-climate-change-deniers-at-hearing-to-lead-epa\/\">Jan. 18 confirmation hearing<\/a>, and they also said the Oklahoma attorney general did not adequately answer a long list of questions about his past and how he\u2019d run the very federal environmental agency he\u2019s sued and worked to undermine.<\/p><p>Democrats said they got little clarity on Pruitt\u2019s statements casting doubt on the science climate change, his financial and political ties to fossil fuel companies, and when and how he\u2019d recuse himself from lawsuits against the agency.<\/p><p>A week after the hearing, ranking member Tom Carper, D-Delaware, hosted a panel discussion with guests who said Pruitt did little to protect the environment during his time as Oklahoma attorney general.<\/p><p>Kelly Hunter Foster, now a senior attorney at the Waterkeeper Alliance, helped build and eventually lead the environmental protection unit in the Oklahoma AG\u2019s office under Pruitt\u2019s predecessor, Democrat Drew Edmondson. Foster told the panel the environmental unit\u2019s work led to 142 criminal investigations and 56 prosecutions of environmental laws.<\/p><p>Foster left the AG\u2019s office before Pruitt took over the agency in 2011.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s my understanding that that level of work in terms of criminal prosecution has not continued in Oklahoma,\u201d she told the panel.<\/p><p>Pruitt later shuttered the environmental unit and opened a \u201cFederalism Unit\u201d to fight the federal government, often in the form of lawsuits against the EPA.<\/p><p>Pruitt declined interview requests until the confirmation process is over. The AG\u2019s office says its environmental work continued under a different unit, but <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/01\/16\/oklahoma-ag-and-epa-pick-pruitt-stalled-pollution-lawsuit-after-contributions-from-poultry-industry\/\">court records and financial data<\/a> suggest environmental enforcement has not been a top priority for Pruitt.<\/p><p>Republicans on the committee say Pruitt is the right man to reform an EPA that has evolved into a job-killing, states-rights-trampling federal agency that has been running wild with unnecessary environmental rules.<\/p><p>Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, attacked Carper\u2019s panel discussion as a \u201cshadow hearing\u201d and said Pruitt has been cooperative with committee members.<\/p><p>\u201cHe went through four rounds of questions,\u201d Inhofe said at the meeting Democrats boycotted on Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s more rounds than any other nominee in the recorded history of this committee.\u201d<\/p><p>Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, noted Pruitt answered more than 1,200 questions. \u201cThere comes a point when vetting has been turned into obstruction and that is what we\u2019re witnessing today,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>Senate Republicans called the Democratic boycott a political \u201ctantrum\u201d and a \u201cwitch-hunt.\u201d Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, said he suspects the procedural protest isn\u2019t really about Pruitt at all.<\/p><p>\u201cIt is simply about their disappointment with the results of the November election,\u201d Wicker said. \u201cPure and simple.\u201d<\/p><p>Democrats again boycotted Thursday\u2019s meeting, but committee Republicans suspended rules requiring at least two minority-party members be present for a vote. Pruitt\u2019s nomination now faces a vote on the Senate floor.<\/p><p>Democrats aren\u2019t the only party to boycott committee votes for EPA administrator: Republicans did it in 2013 to block advancement of Obama\u2019s nominee Gina McCarthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With no Democrats in the room, U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday voted unanimously to approve the nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":27869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490,491],"tags":[678,499,688],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27868"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27874,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27868\/revisions\/27874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}