The Environmental Protection Agency quickly defended its decision to allow two Trump nominees to begin work at the agency in lower-level positions prior to being confirmed to top roles, after a top Democrat voiced concerns.
Peter Wright and Chad McIntosh began working at EPA as “special counsels” to Andrew Wheeler, the acting EPA administrator, who took over after former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt resigned late last week.
[Related: Meet Andrew Wheeler, Scott Pruitt’s replacement at EPA who could be long for the job]
EPA assured that the decision to allow the two nominees to work at the agency is being done within the confines of the law, and abides by court precedent.
“The agency will ensure we are in compliance with the law at all times,” said Kevin Minoli, EPA principal deputy general counsel, in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “There is nothing in the Vacancies Reform Act or the Supreme Court jurisprudence that is dependent on the stage a nomination is at in the Senate’s advice and consent process,” Minoli explained.
Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said having the two at work at the agency so soon after Pruitt’s resignation is “troubling.”
“To announce that EPA will bring on Mr. Wright and Mr. McIntosh on the day that Administrator Pruitt departs — before they have even responded to senators’ post-hearing questions and without notifying the Environment and Public Works Committee, the committee that has jurisdiction over the agency — not only breaks with past norm and precedents, but shows incredibly poor judgment, especially when we should be turning over a new leaf,” Carper said in a statement.
EPA Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson announced that the two would be working at the agency beginning on Monday in an agency-wide email sent Friday, E&E News first reported. EPA did not send a copy of the Ryan email in response to the Washington Examiner’s request.
However, an EPA spokesperson explained that Wright and McIntosh will not be performing the duties for which they were nominated.
“Neither will be performing any duties that are reserved for the position for which they have been nominated,” the spokesperson said in statement. It was reported that the two nominees would advise Wheeler on issues related to the positions they were nominated to occupy.
Wright and McIntosh, if confirmed, will head EPA’s offices of Land and Emergency Management and International and Tribal Affairs, respectively.
EPA underscored in an email that Carper had praised Wright at a June 20 confirmation hearing for stating that he would recuse himself from working on any Superfund clean-up site related to his former employer, the Dow Chemical Company, now DowDuPont, where he helped lead Dow’s Superfund cleanup work.
“I commend Mr. Wright for working on this recusal statement prior to confirmation, prior to confirmation,” said Carper in prepared remarks. “He has committed to take more meaningful steps to address potential conflicts of interest than any previous Trump Administration nominee that I am aware of, and I commend you for that.”
McIntosh had worked for automaker Ford. Carper had no immediate complaint over his previous experience.
Trump’s EPA had previously employed at least two nominees, including Susan Bodine and Michael Dourson, before their confirmations. Bodine now leads the agency’s enforcement office.
Dourson withdrew his nomination after Senate opposition mounted against his leading the agency’s chemical safety office. He had been a researcher whose work had been seen as bolstering claims by chemical manufacturers of pesticides, flame retardants, and other chemicals with harmful health effects.
