Schumer: It Is The Absolute Height Of Hypocrisy For Republicans To Rush Through The Nomination Of Scott Pruitt To Be EPA Administrator
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer urged Republicans today to be responsible and delay the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be EPA Administrator. Below are his remarks:
Let me thank all my colleagues; Jeff Merkley who led this charge and all the members, Chairman Carper, Senator Whitehouse, Senator Schatz, who have been our beacons on clean air and clean water and on climate change in this Congress.
Let me just say, for years, it seems we all heard from Republicans, including President Trump -- all we heard from them was e-mails, e-mails, e-mails. Countless taxpayer dollars, congressional resources were spent discussing e-mails. Well, just yesterday, as you’ve heard, an Oklahoma judge ruled that Scott Pruitt, President Trump's nominee to lead the EPA, must turn over approximately 3,000 e-mails relating to his communications with the fossil fuel industry.
You'd expect my colleagues to be up in arms, my Republican colleagues. After all, in 2013, Gina McCarthy waited 122 days to be confirmed for EPA because they felt she wasn't honoring a commitment to transparency. Remember the sturm und drang over Lisa Jackson's e- mails.
Surely, my Republican colleagues would be concerned about a similar lack of transparency from a soon-to-be EPA administrator.
But what is the Republican leadership's response? Strap blinders on their members and rush Pruitt through. The absolute height of hypocrisy. The same standard they had for Lisa Jackson and for Gina McCarthy they ought to have for Scott Pruitt. There's no good reason for it. To wait a few extra days to go over Pruitt's e-mails is not the worst thing in the world, it's the smart and responsible thing to do.
It's not the worst thing in the world to take a few extra days to properly vet someone who will have immense power over our nation's streams, skies, even the lead levels in our homes, our schools and our water supply. And we offered Senator McConnell to do another nominee today so we could still -- so it will not even slow down the process of putting in the Cabinet. He said no. We know why he said no. My colleagues have made that clear.
So let's think. Senator McConnell is gonna come here in a few minutes and talk about the fact that we're holding up the Cabinet. Well, yes. Senator McConnell and Donald Trump wanted us to have all those Cabinet officers approved the first day we got -- first day after he became president. Can you imagine what would have happened if we rushed through all of these nominees on day one? Would we ever have learned that Steve Mnuchin had an undisclosed account in the Cayman Islands or that Betsy DeVos was so rankly unqualified to lead the Education Department or that Mick Mulvaney dodged tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on a household employee?
Just think, if the Republicans had their way, Andrew Puzder might be the Labor secretary right now. And why are our Republican colleagues, why do they want to rush through this cabinet? They're ashamed of them. They don't want the light of day. Senator McConnell is ashamed of these Cabinet members, I believe. Many of my Republican colleagues I know are. It is the worst Cabinet I think in the history of America, certainly in my lifetime. A swamp Cabinet, billionaires, bankers.
One-third of the American people have less wealth -- add them all up. You add up the wealth of the bottom third of the American people, there's less wealth than in this Cabinet of 15 people. This represents America? It's a betrayal of Donald Trump's promise to represent working men and women. It's exactly the opposite on every count. It's the worst Cabinet in terms of conflicts of interest. It's the worst Cabinet in terms of coming from a rarefied sector of American society, the top one percent, the billionaires. And it's the worst Cabinet in terms of representing the views of average Americans.
Slash Social Security and Medicare? Gut our clean air and clean water laws? Be so hostile to working people that robots are better? What kind of Cabinet is this? So we know why our Republican colleagues -- what's happening with Pruitt is a metaphor for the whole Cabinet. Rush it through. No daylight. The disinfectant of sunlight might bring most of these Cabinet members down.
And so let me just show you an example. I want to read to you the number of people who spoke, Democrats who spoke against the Cabinet members and Republican members -- Republican senators who spoke for the Cabinet members. They're ashamed. They don't want to defend these people. They want to rush them through because the Cabinet is just as a whole so awful. DeVos; nine Republicans speaking for, 69 Democrats speaking against. That's times they spoke because we don't have 69. One day we will at the rate they're going.
Mnuchin; three Republicans for, 14 Democrats against; Mulvaney, eight Republicans for, 20 Republicans against; Price, eight Republicans for, 38 Republicans; Pruitt -- Democrats against, sorry. Did I say that wrong for a few of them? Should I say it again or you get my point?
OK. Pruitt; 14 Republicans for, 45 Democrats against; Puzder, no Republicans for, only three Democrats got a chance, fortunately, to show who Mr. Puzder is; Tillerson, six Republicans for, 22 Democrats against; Sessions, 22 Republicans for, 41 Democrats against. They don't want sunlight on this Cabinet. They wanted to rush it through.
We have done America, Senator McConnell, we have done America a service by showing who these people are, and now, every time Betsy DeVos tries to hurt public education, the American people will have their eye on her. When Secretary Price decides to gut health care, the American people will have their eyes on him.
On issue after issue, the American people are learning not only who this Cabinet is, but who Donald Trump really is, not the Donald Trump who campaigned for people -- campaigned for people and he said he was for the working people in the campaign. His broken promises just in this Cabinet alone are legion.
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