Speaker 1: This week on Parts Provilion, we come to you from
Speaker 1: Capitol Hill. We're we're placing bets on whether Andrew Wheeler's
Speaker 1: nomination to lead the EPA will clear the Senate. Actually
Speaker 1: whether it might not be the right word. It's more
Speaker 1: like when or by how much? Hello, and welcome to
Speaker 1: Parts Provilion, the podcast from Bloomberg Environment. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: David Schultz, and today we're up on Capitol Hill to
Speaker 1: talk about Andrew Wheeler. The President wants him to be
Speaker 1: the permanent head of the EPA. Right now, he's serving
Speaker 1: in an acting capacity. But first he's got to get
Speaker 1: through the Senate, and that is where we are. We
Speaker 1: are sitting right outside the Senate chamber, and I'm joined
Speaker 1: by Bloomberg Environment's congressional correspondent, Dean Scott. Dean, how are
Speaker 1: you doing? Great? Good to be here. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us so, Dean, I'm hearing that Andrew Wheeler will
Speaker 1: likely not have a lot of trouble getting out of
Speaker 1: Committee when he goes up for a vote there, and
Speaker 1: then getting out of the Senate floor when his nomination
Speaker 1: comes there. What's going to be happening with Wheeler's nomination, Well, first, up.
Speaker 1: You're right. We have a Environment Committee business meeting where
Speaker 1: they essentially vote and are expected to vote him out,
Speaker 1: probably along a party line vote, as happened last year
Speaker 1: when he was eventually confirmed the Senate as the deputy.
Speaker 1: So he's been working as an acting EPA administrator since
Speaker 1: July of last year. So we expect this to be
Speaker 1: the first step, probably the easier step for mister Wheeler
Speaker 1: on his journey to become Senate confirmed EPA administrator. And
Speaker 1: then after he gets out of the Committee, he'll go
Speaker 1: to the Senate floor, which is right behind us where
Speaker 1: we sit right now, and it sounds like he probably
Speaker 1: won't have a lot of trouble there either. I think
Speaker 1: the time is on the Republican side, and what I
Speaker 1: mean by that is the sooner they can get Andrew
Speaker 1: Wheeler confirmed as EPA administrator, the better for him. He
Speaker 1: has a very strong support on the Republican side. He
Speaker 1: has very little support from Democrats, but with Republicans controlling
Speaker 1: the chamber over here fifty three forty seven, his supporters
Speaker 1: have a little leeway to lose a vote if they
Speaker 1: need to, and they'll probably pick up at least one Democrat.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that in a second. But one of
Speaker 1: the things we should just briefly mention is that Republicans
Speaker 1: only need fifty one I guess actually fifty votes to
Speaker 1: confirm him. This is not something that Democrats can filibuster.
Speaker 1: So the sixty vote threshold that you hear about a
Speaker 1: lot doesn't really apply here. That's right, And we've seen
Speaker 1: a couple nominees from President Trump who were actually approved
Speaker 1: by fifty votes fifty votes plus in some cases by
Speaker 1: the vice president, and so he has a little margin
Speaker 1: for a little error here. The issue I think will
Speaker 1: be it's something that I've talked to a couple Republican
Speaker 1: senators this week about is the optics of having an
Speaker 1: EPA administrator who could possibly be confirmed by only Republican senators,
Speaker 1: which would be the first time in the history of
Speaker 1: the agency. So Democrats can't really stop Wheeler. It sounds like,
Speaker 1: will they try to delay his nomination? Will they do anything,
Speaker 1: you know, take any parliamentary measures to try to make
Speaker 1: it harder on Republicans to confirm him. All committee have
Speaker 1: some procedures for at least a slight delay. This is
Speaker 1: happening actually over an Attorney general confirmation battle. In judiciary
Speaker 1: where you can have a week or two of ripening
Speaker 1: of a nominee even after they clear the committee. Beyond that,
Speaker 1: there's some small I would call them weaponry or tactics
Speaker 1: that you can use. But I fully expect, barring some
Speaker 1: unforeseen circumstances other legislation, government shut down, we should be
Speaker 1: seeing Wheeler on the Senate floor sometime in February. So
Speaker 1: you mentioned that this could be unusual and that Wheeler
Speaker 1: could be confirmed with only Republican votes. You may get
Speaker 1: one Democratic vote. What's going on with who's the Democrat
Speaker 1: that might vote vote for him? And what would be
Speaker 1: the significance of that if he is confirmed with just Republicans.
Speaker 1: So just setting the scene from last year, we had
Speaker 1: three Democrats that actually voted for a Wheeler the last
Speaker 1: time when he was on the floor for deputy, and
Speaker 1: those were Senators don Lee and Hidekamp and Senator Mansion
Speaker 1: from West Virginia. Which you say, of the three of those,
Speaker 1: two of those senators are not here any longer, that's right.
Speaker 1: So Senators Donn Lee and Hydekamp were defeated, so you
Speaker 1: assume that their two Republican successors will of course vote
Speaker 1: for mister Wheeler, and I would assume the betting money
Speaker 1: right now is that Senator Manchin, while not assured, will
Speaker 1: probably still vote for mister Wheeler. So a vote that's
Speaker 1: at least close to the fifty three forty five vote,
Speaker 1: which is what the vote was last year to confirm
Speaker 1: mister Wheeler looks about right barring what some of us
Speaker 1: have begun to talk about, which is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a publican concern around the edges on some policy issues. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about how this could be a
Speaker 1: really really almost totally party line vote. Maybe in a
Speaker 1: officially party line vote. That sounds like it's pretty unusual
Speaker 1: for the head of the EPA, especially since you know
Speaker 1: a lot of people have been saying that that Andrew
Speaker 1: Wheeler is much less divisive, much less partisan than his predecessor,
Speaker 1: Scott Pruitt. Why do you think there's still this sort
Speaker 1: of divide over who leads the EPA, this partisan divide.
Speaker 1: I think it's a couple of things. One is, there's
Speaker 1: still a lot of democratic anger over Merrick Garland and
Speaker 1: in the Senate Majority Leader McConnell's decision to not move
Speaker 1: forward on that Obama nomination to the Supreme Court. That's
Speaker 1: number one. That anger still ripples through confirmation battles today,
Speaker 1: and also the move away from a sixty vote threshold
Speaker 1: for executive branch nominations. Now you need essentially a simple majority.
Speaker 1: We've seen people confirmed over here, by the way, forty
Speaker 1: nine to forty eight. So as long as you have
Speaker 1: essentially more than your opposition, you can confirm someone. Senate
Speaker 1: Democrats really were angered over that move. They had some
Speaker 1: reason to be, although they did make a similar change
Speaker 1: on a more moderate change for some nominations a smaller
Speaker 1: set of nominations under President Obama, So that sort of
Speaker 1: anger is still palpable. In the Senate, there's not much
Speaker 1: reason for the Democratic minority to support Wheeler, even though
Speaker 1: he was a longtime aid in the Senate Environment Committee.
Speaker 1: Many of them are very familiar with him. He is
Speaker 1: has much better relationships with Democrats and Republicans than his predecessor,
Speaker 1: Scott Pruitt. Yeah, let's briefly sort of get into that
Speaker 1: a little bit. It seems like Wheeler and prove It,
Speaker 1: at least on the surface, are very very different, different
Speaker 1: in their demeanor, different in their sort of profile in Washington.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the you know,
Speaker 1: elaborate on the ways that they are different and maybe
Speaker 1: some ways that they're similar. One way is mister Wheeler
Speaker 1: has made some effort to reach out to EPA career
Speaker 1: employees his emails when the for example, when the last
Speaker 1: shutdown and it talked about the importance of career EPA employees.
Speaker 1: He has done that at the urging of some Democrats
Speaker 1: in the Senate and some on his own, which is
Speaker 1: smart politics. He's not seen as the divisive figure, refusing
Speaker 1: essentially to budge on even being communicative to Senate Democrats.
Speaker 1: On policy issues, You're not going to see Wheeler sort
Speaker 1: of criticize the deep state. You know, that's not a
Speaker 1: phrase you'll probably hear from him. Yes, and also, as
Speaker 1: has been reported over a lot over the last year,
Speaker 1: mister Prewitt, his Wheeler's predecessor, had a lot of run
Speaker 1: ins with ethical concerns, and mister Wheelers has stayed really
Speaker 1: far away from that, has just basically quietly got down
Speaker 1: to business, which on policy issues, whether it's rolling back
Speaker 1: EPA climate regulations or revamping how EPA does chemical reviews,
Speaker 1: which some people see as a slow down of those reviews.
Speaker 1: Mister Wheeler is in effect doing much of the work
Speaker 1: we might have expected mister Prewitt to do just more quietly,
Speaker 1: all right, and then finally wrapping it up. Let's sort
Speaker 1: of handicap this, you know, this is sort of a
Speaker 1: favorite pastime of reporters up here on the Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you're saying he's going to get between
Speaker 1: fifty three and fifty four votes in favor of his
Speaker 1: nomination when he gets to the floor. Is is that
Speaker 1: where you're putting it? Is there any and what are
Speaker 1: the odds that he gets either more than fifty four
Speaker 1: or less than fifty three? I think for me, one
Speaker 1: question I have is for Kirsten Cinemon, the successor to
Speaker 1: Senator Flake, the Democrat that took a Republican this won't
Speaker 1: affect the vote much because because she would be voting
Speaker 1: if she votes yes. Senator Flake also voted yes. But
Speaker 1: that said, there are some interesting there's some interesting talk
Speaker 1: in the background about some Republican concerns about mister Wheeler,
Speaker 1: about some chemical issues with p foss and some other
Speaker 1: other chemicals that are been raised as human health concerns.
Speaker 1: Some of that I think we're going to see a
Speaker 1: little bit of tugging back and forth over that some
Speaker 1: of those Republicans are looking at re election campaigns in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, including Corey Gardner in Colorado. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, I would be really surprised two things,
Speaker 1: that Wheeler does not get a single Democratic vote, because
Speaker 1: I think Senator Manchin is most likely going to be
Speaker 1: a yes. So I still think we're going to see
Speaker 1: a vote very close to the fifty three forty five
Speaker 1: vote that mister Wheeler got last year for the deputy job.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that was Dean Scott, Bloomberg Environment's Capitol
Speaker 1: Hill correspondent. For more of his reporting from the Capitol,
Speaker 1: go to News dot Bloomberg, Environment dot com, that's news Bloomberg,
Speaker 1: Environment dot com and Press. Revillion was produced by myself
Speaker 1: and Jessica Coomes. Our editor is Marissa Horn, our audio
Speaker 1: engineer is Nicholas Anzelada, and the music for this episode
Speaker 1: is a message by Jazzarre. Thanks for listening.