[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S6962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Environmental Protection Agency

  However, there is an Agency that is doing work that is also important 
to all Americans and needs appointments, and that Agency is the 
Environmental Protection Agency. If there has been one Agency over the 
last 8 years that has run around and expanded its authority beyond 
congressional intent, it is the EPA. Putting confirmed appointees in 
place at the EPA will allow the President and Scott Pruitt to be 
successful in their efforts to rightsize that Agency. He has talked 
about that quite a bit. It is a bloated Agency that needs to be 
rightsized, and he needs help to do that.
  Last week, I highlighted the great things that Scott Pruitt is doing 
as Administrator. I was able to visit with him yesterday at the EPA and 
witness firsthand the implementation of new policies that will bring 
about positive changes in an Agency that has run roughshod over the 
American people. With the repeal of WOTUS and the Clean Power Plan, 
with the implementation of TSCA, in reforming the Agency by ending sue-
and-settle processes, and by creating greater transparency on the EPA's 
Science Advisory Committee, he is really doing a great job.
  By the way, yesterday, we had this event over there which had to do 
with the scientists. There are three Scientific Advisory Boards in the 
EPA. These are supposed to be made up of scientists who advise the 
policymakers as to what they are supposed to be doing. During the last 
administration, we discovered in just one of these that six out of 
seven of the appointees were actually recipients of grants from the 
EPA. In fact, I was over there, and I gave a little talk about those 
six. They actually received $119 million, and they are supposed to be 
unbiased in making policy. Obviously, this is one of the many things 
that he is going to make sure will no longer exist.
  He is making it impossible for anyone who serves on a scientific 
advisory board to receive any grants from the EPA. How reasonable is 
that? Yet that is still a practice they use and one of the many things 
he is cleaning up there.
  There is a lot of work still to do. The Agency needs its Assistant 
Administrators, who will work to implement many of the initiatives I 
have worked toward for years. The Environment and Public Works 
Committee has now voted out five Assistant Administrators and General 
Counsel nominees, and I hope we can move swiftly to get these well 
qualified nominees over to the EPA to bring their expertise to an 
Agency that desperately needs them. Unfortunately, Democrats have 
targeted two of these nominees and have disparaged them, their work, 
and their backgrounds.