[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 56 (Monday, April 9, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S1995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATION OF ANDREW WHEELER

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this week the Senate will consider 
several nominations, including the nomination of Andrew Wheeler to be 
Deputy Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. 
Wheeler--not atypical of this administration, not atypical of the dense 
swamp that they have made a whole lot worse--is, what else, an industry 
lobbyist who has worked on behalf of big polluters and climate change 
deniers. He spent years working to undermine or lobby against 
environmental protections he may soon oversee. As a lobbyist, he helped 
raise money for a few Republican Senators who sit on the committee that 
recently approved his nomination. Swamp, President Trump? You are 
creating it; you are making it a lot worse.
  Wheeler's nomination fits the pattern in the Trump administration of 
nominating industry lobbyists to lead agencies that are supposed to be 
a watchdog over those very industries. The nerve it takes for President 
Trump and his allies to preach ``drain the swamp'' after all the 
President has done to fill the swamp since coming to Washington. His 
Cabinet is filled with multimillionaires, hedge fund managers, 
corporate executives, and former lobbyists with sprawling conflicts of 
interest. Mr. Wheeler is only the latest in a long line of swamp 
nominees. I will be opposing his nomination.

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