Political Quotes

“Well, I thank the Senator for that question. It is a really important one because essentially what Scott Pruitt is saying is: Hey, let's let the States handle this. But if you are to take him at his word, I think it is not unreasonable to say: Well how did you handle enforcement of either State or Federal environmental law as the top cop in the State of Oklahoma? Right? He did two things that would cause everybody to question his commitment to even local environmental protection. The first thing he did when he came in as Oklahoma AG--a lot of offices the attorney general have environmental protection units. It is like a big law firm. They have different units that handle different kinds of crime. They have a civil division; they have a criminal division. They do lots of things. One of the divisions is to enforce environmental law. He disbanded it. He disbanded the State attorney general's division that enforces environmental law. Then he beefed up this thing that did not exist until he got there, which was essentially a division to undermine Federal authorities. So you are right. He has them coming and going. He is making an argument that the State should be empowered to enforce environmental law. At least we could take that as kind of on-the-level federalism. We have some good Republican colleagues who just really believe that the government that governs least governs best.…”