Senate Democrats predicted Wednesday that Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt was close to being removed from his post, amid reports that suggest President Trump is ready to oust him and replace him with Andrew Wheeler, who Trump has nominated as deputy EPA administrator.
“We would see Pruitt leave in a matter of days,” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said at a press conference he led Wednesday morning.
Udall said Democrats are hearing that the White House is still split on whether to fire Pruitt after a string of scandals, but that his firing or forced resignation is imminent.
If Wheeler is named as Pruitt’s replacement, Udall said he wants the Senate to delay a planned vote on Wheeler’s nomination to be deputy. That vote is tentatively planned for this week, but Udall said Wheeler should instead be reconsidered and vetted for the administrator job if that’s what Trump wants.
Udall and other Democrats are worried about Wheeler’s credentials as a fossil fuel lobbyist.
Udall hopes the GOP will agree with him, and said many Republicans are “privately very disturbed” over the Pruitt scandals involving condo deals linked to lobbyists, expensive travel and security expenses, and the use of his position to grant pay raises.
Udall, backed by a number of top Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, is introducing a nonbinding resolution saying that Pruitt must go.
Pruitt’s list of “sins” is very long, said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
“He has ignored the law and openly worked against the will of Congress,” Markey said. It is time for Pruitt to get an “eviction notice” and the locks at EPA changed, Markey quipped, making reference to Pruitt’s condo deal linked to industry lobbyists.
The liberal think tank Center for American Progress, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and others joined the Democrats Wednesday morning in calling for Pruitt’s ouster.
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox hit back at the Democrats, saying Pruitt’s work is focused on providing certainty and advancing the Trump agenda.
“From advocating to leave the Paris Accord, working to repeal Obama’s Clean Power Plan and WOTUS, declaring a war on lead and cleaning up toxic Superfund sites, Administrator Pruitt is focused on advancing President Trump’s agenda of regulatory certainty and environmental stewardship,” Wilcox said.
Udall plans to introduce his resolution next week. A similar resolution is also expected to be introduced in the House.
“Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that — (1) Scott Pruitt should resign immediately from his post as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and (2) the President should appoint to the office of Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency an individual who will be committed to the fulfillment of the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency and who is able to fully and faithfully discharge the public duties entrusted to the office of the Administrator,” according to a draft obtained by Washington Examiner.
