It appears a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate on Scott Pruitt’s nomination to be the next EPA administrator could be next week. That’s the indication from Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Also one of the Democrats who for two days last week boycotted the committee’s confirmation recommendation on Pruitt.
While Carper said the vote might happen next week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined this week to announce any schedule on confirmation votes. Carper also said he would encourage Democrats to hold the floor overnight in a move against Pruitt’s nomination, the same thing they did in fighting the confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
But Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, who heads the Senate committee that recommended Pruitt to the full senate predicts Pruitt will be confirmed and have the support of “some Democrats.”
Meanwhile the lawsuit filed against Pruitt in an open records fight in Oklahoma prompted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others to say Pruitt should not get a vote until the emails in question are released.
“Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Republicans arne’t outraged by secret emails; instead, they are fast-tracking Pruitt’s nomination,” read the state by Schumer and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Elizabeth Warren. “Until those emails are released, the Senate should not vote on Mr. Pruitt’s nomination.”
Carper added that Pruitt’s “contempt for the senate and his duty to serve the people of Oklahoma in a transparent, open manner does not bode well for how he would serve the American people as head of the EPA.”
An Oklahoma county judge has a hearing set for Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons of Oklahoma County District Court will hearing a request for an injunction to force the attorney general to release more than 3,000 emails requested two years ago. The case is CV-2017-223.