Democratic senators boycotted a vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s pick to hear the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wednesday, saying Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt had not answered all of the more than written 1,000 questions submitted to him by lawmaker.
“It is a disappointing turn of events,” Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said when no committee Democrats showed up to the scheduled vote.
“It’s not like they’re busy, literally they’re circling the hallway,” Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, said Wednesday, comparing the Democrat boycott to a “temper tantrum.”
Democrats gathered in the hallway outside the committee hearing room to broadcast a live statement against Pruitt’s confirmation. Ranking member Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware criticized Pruitt for not answering all the questions submitted to him after his January hearing.
Carper asked Barrasso to postpone the vote until Pruitt answered all 1,078 questions.
