Democrat boycott delays vote on Scott Pruitt for EPA job
Republican senators accused Democratic colleagues of “childish behavior” and “throwing a tantrum” Wednesday morning by refusing to allow a committee vote on Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
Republicans said Pruitt had already answered far more questions than any previous nominee for the position.
Democrats said Pruitt may have been asked more questions than his predecessors, but he hasn’t necessarily answered them.
In particular, they charge Pruitt has been less than forthright in complying with requests for information about his relationship with companies and industries the EPA regulates.
They accuse Pruitt of using the Oklahoma Open Records Act to avoid surrendering official correspondence related to his lawsuits against the EPA and a settlement with the state of Arkansas related to water quality in the Illinois River watershed.
Pruitt has said he cannot produce the documents himself, and that the committee members must request them through the Open Records Act.
In a Wednesday letter to Pruitt’s general counsel, Sarah Greenwalt, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse writes, “As a former (state) Attorney General, I find Mr. Pruitt’s claims that he is not aware of pending open records requests at his office and is apparently powerless to provide that information to the Committee on his own accord, hard to believe, and suggestive of an effort to hide information from the Senate before his confirmation.”
In the letter, Whitehouse says open records requests for the materials have been pending for as long as two years.
Whitehouse and his fellow Democrats stayed away from Wednesday’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting, thus preventing a vote to forward Pruitt’s nomination to the full Senate.
Under Senate rules, at least two members of each party must be present to constitute a quorum.
Earlier Wednesday, the Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee suspended that rule to break a Democratic boycott and allow votes on two Trump administration appointees.
Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso of Wyoming did not say Wednesday whether he would consider a similar move.