Political Quotes

“Madam President, as everyone in this Chamber knows, we are currently debating and preparing to vote on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The truth is that we don't have all the information we need to make this important decision. We don't have all the facts we ought to have. That is because the nominee, in his role as attorney general of Oklahoma, worked very hard to keep the information contained, controlled, and unavailable to the Senators in this Chamber and unavailable to the citizens of the United States of America. For 2 years now, his office has stonewalled attempts to make public the records of over 3,000 email communications with members of the fossil fuel industry. Two years ago, the Center for Media and Democracy requested these emails through the Oklahoma Open Records Act. Who is the person who decides whether to release those records? The attorney general of Oklahoma. Who is the nominee before us? The attorney general of Oklahoma. When Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee requested these records from Mr. Pruitt during the confirmation process, the answer we got back was this: ``I would direct you to make a request of the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office under the Oklahoma Open Records Act.'' Now, when he encouraged us to make that request, he knew--and we shortly knew--that he had no intention of actually granting access.…”