Speaker 1: All the President's men and women, Will they be confirmed?
Speaker 1: And if so, what does that mean? Coming to you
Speaker 1: from Capitol Hill, this is Parts per Billion. Hello, and
Speaker 1: welcome to Parts per Billion, the biweekly environmental policy podcast
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg BNA. I'm your host, David Schultz, and we
Speaker 1: are on Capitol Hill because today we're talking about President
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's nominees to head his cabinet agencies, especially the
Speaker 1: Environmental Protection Agency. And I'm here with BNA reporter Brian Dabs. Brian,
Speaker 1: how's it going? Doing well? Sir? Thank you? Now, Brian,
Speaker 1: where are we on Capitol Hill? What's what location are
Speaker 1: we at right now? David, We're just a few feed
Speaker 1: from the hallowed grounds of the Senate Floor, the greatest
Speaker 1: deliverative body in the world. This will be the setting
Speaker 1: for confirmation votes on the whole range of President Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's cabinet nominations. That's right, And so let's start off
Speaker 1: with Scott Pruett, the Attorney General of Oklahoma, who President
Speaker 1: Trump is nominated to head the e PA. He testified
Speaker 1: before a Senate committee earlier. You were covering this hearing.
Speaker 1: You know, did he break with the president with the
Speaker 1: person who nominated him or did he break with his
Speaker 1: prior record at all during these confirmation hearings. He did
Speaker 1: break with the president in saying that climate change explicitly
Speaker 1: is not a hoax. He said that human activity contributes
Speaker 1: to climate change quote in some manner. He also said
Speaker 1: that his opinion on climate change is quote immaterial. And
Speaker 1: this really comports with his preference and his pledge to
Speaker 1: simply be an implementer of the law and to not
Speaker 1: have an over zealous, ambitious EPA rather strict, strictly implement
Speaker 1: the laws on the books. He had one departure from
Speaker 1: his kind of track record as Oklahoma Attorney General in particular,
Speaker 1: and that was his vow to uphold in the most
Speaker 1: ambitious manner possible the EPA's renewable fuel standard. The oil
Speaker 1: industry despises this rule for the most part. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: these hearings and testimony are all well and good, but
Speaker 1: in a few weeks Pruitz nomination is going to go
Speaker 1: into the room that's just behind us, the Senate Chamber,
Speaker 1: and he's going to need fifty votes if he wants
Speaker 1: to actually become the EPA administrator. Can he get those
Speaker 1: fifty votes? Brian Well Initially, it appears as though Republican
Speaker 1: support for PREUD is lockste Republicans currently have fifty two
Speaker 1: seats in the Senate, and that would indicate that his
Speaker 1: path to confirmation is essentially greased. First, however, he does
Speaker 1: need to get through committee. There's some kind of interesting
Speaker 1: scenarios that could surface. Senate Democrats are calling on Jeff's
Speaker 1: Sessions to recuse himself from votes on other cabinet nominees.
Speaker 1: Senator Sessions is a member of the EPW Committee. Right now,
Speaker 1: the breakdown on committee is eleven to ten. And by
Speaker 1: the way, right now we have Shelley Moore Capito walking
Speaker 1: by us, who is a Republican member of the committee.
Speaker 1: So in terms of the prognosis, a recusal from Senator
Speaker 1: Jeff Sessions would mean that the committee would be deadlocked,
Speaker 1: presuming which is an accurate presumption at this point, that
Speaker 1: Democrats will be locked up in opposition. So that would
Speaker 1: mean there's a ten vote on committee, the nomination would
Speaker 1: not advance. However, the chairman of the committee still has
Speaker 1: the option of advancing the nomination to the floor without
Speaker 1: an actual affirmative vote. That's interesting. I didn't realize it
Speaker 1: was that tight in the committee and that he might
Speaker 1: have a little trouble evening it making it to the
Speaker 1: Senate floor. But you mentioned that this is assuming that
Speaker 1: all the Democrats vote against him, all the Republicans vote
Speaker 1: for him. Are there any senators who are thinking about
Speaker 1: crossing party lines, either Republicans who are thinking about voting
Speaker 1: against him or Democrats who may be supporting Pruit. It's
Speaker 1: shaping up to be essentially a party line vote on
Speaker 1: the floor. Shouldn't make it there with the exception of
Speaker 1: at least one, possibly several Democratic defections. Senator Joe Manchin
Speaker 1: from West Virginia, who's up for re election in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: has indicated that he looks pretty positively upon the nomination
Speaker 1: of Scott through it. Other senators in that kind of
Speaker 1: camp are Heidi high Camp, Claire mccaskele. So essentially his
Speaker 1: nomination is solid. Should have reached the sound floor. That's interesting.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like the margin between the parties now
Speaker 1: is pretty tight. But Republicans, I think are it looks
Speaker 1: like they're counting on a few Democrats to cross the
Speaker 1: aisle and join ranks and vote for Pruit. So let's
Speaker 1: assume that he is confirmed, and he does become the
Speaker 1: next administrator of the EPA. The EPA, of course, is
Speaker 1: not the only federal agency that affects the environment. There's
Speaker 1: also the Department of Interior, the Department of Energy, and
Speaker 1: even the Department of State, which deals with the international
Speaker 1: climate and other agreements. So let's talk about those nominees,
Speaker 1: Ryan Zink, Rick Perry, and Rex Tillerson. These are the
Speaker 1: nominees that Trump has chosen to lead these agencies, respectively.
Speaker 1: Very briefly, will these three nominees be confirmed? Are there
Speaker 1: any snags that you think they will hit? These three
Speaker 1: nominees appear a position to be confirmed within the coming days,
Speaker 1: at minimum, maybe weeks. It's very hard to determine. Rex
Speaker 1: Tillerson snuck out of committee yesterday in an eleven to
Speaker 1: ten party line vote. Now, Ryan Zink and Rick Perry
Speaker 1: had originally been scheduled to receive a vote to advance
Speaker 1: them out of committee today. That was postponed by the
Speaker 1: chair of that committee, Senator Lisa Rakowski, for undeclared reasons.
Speaker 1: Both of those nominees have come under less fire than
Speaker 1: the Tillerson and the PRUAD nominations, and right now we
Speaker 1: have the third ranking senator, Republican, strolling by Senator John
Speaker 1: Thune from South Dakota. There he went, well, the last
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to bring up was was just, you know,
Speaker 1: taking a step back and thinking about the political environment
Speaker 1: more broadly. You have preu It, you have Perry, you
Speaker 1: have Zinki, and even Tillerson, who looks like they'll all
Speaker 1: be pretty comfortably confirmed. Maybe you know, some of these
Speaker 1: votes will be a little bit closer than you would
Speaker 1: have expected, but it sounds like none of them are
Speaker 1: really in danger of being knocked out. What does that
Speaker 1: say about the environmental movement in the Senate? You know,
Speaker 1: the Democrats who are very passionate about environmental issues. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of Sheldon Whitehouse Ben Cardon. What does that say
Speaker 1: about their you know clout right now in the Senate?
Speaker 1: History has come, History has come to kind of bite
Speaker 1: the Democrats right now. And with regards to nominations, in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, Harry Reid famously invoked the nuclear Option, which
Speaker 1: allows which essentially is a change of Senate rules, and
Speaker 1: it allows the Senate to approve cabinet level nominations and
Speaker 1: other nominations such as judicial nominations. With only a simple majority,
Speaker 1: which the Republicans currently have in the Chamber. Therefore, there's
Speaker 1: virtually no need for Democrats to endorse these nominees in
Speaker 1: order to ultimately approve them. I see. So that's a
Speaker 1: good point that because of the nuclear option, which was
Speaker 1: implemented by Democrats when they were in the majority, they
Speaker 1: may still be able to block some environmental legislation that
Speaker 1: they oppose, but in terms of the cabinet officials who
Speaker 1: deal with these environmental issues and they're opposed to, they
Speaker 1: really have no real recourse to block them from being confirmed.
Speaker 1: It sounds like that's accurate. That was Brian Dab's coming
Speaker 1: to you from Capitol Hill. To read the latest coverage
Speaker 1: of the Trump administration, visit our website at BNA dot com.
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