Scott Pruitt Confirmed as EPA Administrator
Former Oklahoma Attorney General won confirmation 52-46 to become the next EPA Administrator filling out one of President Trump’s more controversial appointments.
As the Oklahoma Attorney General, Mr. Pruitt built a career
out of suing EPA over major environmental rules including leading the efforts
challenging President Obama’s climate and clean power initiatives. Mr.
Pruitt has called for dissolution of much of the agency’s authority citing the
agency’s overreach and lack of transparency on many rules. He and the
Trump Administration have also proposed drastically reducing the size and
breadth of EPA by slashing EPA’s budget, removing two EPA regional offices,
eliminating more than 30 programs, decreasing state grants and programs, and
drastically cutting staff by 20 percent from 15,000 to 12,000. The
proposed budget would drop from $8.2B to $6.1B although Congressional
appropriators might not go along with such large reductions. Other
programs such as science, research & development, and environmental justice
may be reduced or eliminated altogether. As new administrations come and
go, the rank and file in these agencies learn to cope with these ‘temporary’
changes although agencies such as EPA have not experienced such year-after-year
budget reductions. Pruitt even raised concerns with the White House about
the large size of the cuts. EPA’s budget has already been drastically cut
(more than 17 percent) over the past few years putting a strain on EPA to
accomplish its missions, including implementing the new Toxic Substances
Control Act’s rules which is a priority for Republicans and Democrats alike. EPA
has resorted to using enforcement dollars to pursue some priority programs in
the past which raised many concerns. As budget details begin to flow out
of the White House and Congress, ISRI will report on their impacts to the scrap
recycling industry.
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