Pruitt Confirmed as Head of EPA
In a final 52–46 vote, the Senate on Friday confirmed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The vote was mostly along party lines. Every Republican present except Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted for Pruitt (Sen. John McCain [R-Ariz.] did not vote because he is at a military conference in Germany). All Democrats except West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin and North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkemp voted against him.
The Senate confirmed Pruitt even though an Oklahoma state court ordered Pruitt’s office to turn over more than 2,500 emails with coal, gas, and oil corporations that his office had withheld despite open records requests that had been outstanding for more than 740 days. Democrats had sought to delay today’s vote, suggesting the emails could help uncover information needed to understand whether the attorney general engaged with industries that he will be responsible for regulating as EPA administrator.
Scott Pruitt will be sworn in as the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator on February 17.