Nomination of Andrew Wheeler

Floor Speech

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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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