The fight is over for Scott Pruitt to take over as the new Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He was confirmed in a Friday vote of the U.S. and immediately sworn into office, giving up his hold job as Oklahoma Attorney General.
Democrats in the Senate slow-walked his confirmation as much as they could, finally losing their battle in a 52-46 vote. And Republicans celebrated after fighting 8 years of what many, including Pruitt and Gov. Mary Fallin labeled as “overreach” by the Obama administration.
“EPA has made life hard for families all across America,”Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “The agency has issued punishing regulations that caused many hardworking Americans to lose their jobs. Mr. Pruitt will bring much needed change.”
But Pruitt has one more fight, that of meeting a deadline tomorrow of an Oklahoma County District Judge’s order to turnover an estimated 3,000 emails in an open records request.
It was the judge’s order that prompted Democrats to ask for another delay in the confirmation vote, wanting to see what the emails contained about their beliefs that Pruitt was too cozy with oil and gas companies.
“Emails! Remember emails?” asked Senate Democratic leader Chuch Schumer in a speech on the Senate floor. “We should get them out!’ they said about Hillary Clinton….If they weren’t worried about them, then why rush?”
A short time after the confirmation vote, Pruitt was sworn into office by Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito.