Political Quotes

“today I must vote to oppose the confirmation of Scott Pruitt as the President's nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. While I believe that the President enjoys some privilege of selecting administration officials, the views that Mr. Pruitt and I hold on a wide range of key environmental issues are completely irreconcilable. I was deeply disturbed by Mr. Pruitt's lack of specificity and his evasiveness during his hearing and in response to written questions. While no one would expect Mr. Pruitt to detail the new Trump administration's policies on these complex issues, we do expect the nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency to share with us his own views on important matters, including whether there are any EPA regulations he supports, or whether he would fully recuse himself from making decisions in all legal cases in which he was an original party-- but no. Instead, he testified that he had not conducted a comprehensive review of existing EPA regulations. With respect to recusals, he asserts that he would simply follow the recommendations of the EPA's ethics office. That is not good enough. I am deeply disturbed by Mr. Pruitt's evasive responses. This does not bode well for his future interactions with Congress where he will certainly be required to appear before committees and provide testimony, briefing materials, and other information in a timely manner.…”