Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to urge my colleagues to vote no on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a nomination that marks yet another broken promise from the new President to put the needs of American families first over the wishes of big corporations and special interests. And just like we have seen with Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education or Steve Mnuchin at Treasury, we have yet another Trump nominee whose record demonstrates a direct conflict with the mission of the agency they wish to lead. On the EPA's website, that mission is pretty clear--``to protect human health and the environment''--and EPA achieves that by enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. So I will be voting no on this nomination. I want to make two points on why Mr. Pruitt heading up the EPA would be wrong for our country and why it would be wrong for the families I represent in Washington State. It starts with his record and clear conflicts of interest. During Mr. Pruitt's term as the attorney general for Oklahoma, he filed no less than 19 cases to overturn environmental regulations, including one to topple the EPA's Clean Power Plan. These regulations specifically seek to protect public health by reducing harmful air and water pollution and are projected to save tens of thousands of lives each year. As if it wasn't bad enough that Mr.…”