GOP Senators Boycott McCarthy

Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s nominee for EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Director, will have to wait a little longer for Senate confirmation as Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee boycotted the “mark-up” of McCarthy’s nomination.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) began Thursday’s committee meeting saying she was “rather stunned” that the Republicans planned to boycott the meeting and that she had only just heard of the efforts of Republicans to halt the McCarthy confirmation.

In a letter sent to Boxer, Republicans expressed the lack of cooperation from the EPA.

“As you know, all Republicans on our EPW committee have asked EPA to honor five very reasonable and basic requests in conjunction with the nomination of Gina McCarthy which focus on openness and transparency… While you have allowed EPA adequate time to fully respond before any mark-up on the nomination, EPA has stonewalled on four of the five categories. Because of this, no Republican member of the Committee will attend [Thursday]’s mark-up if it is held.”

Boxer did hold the EPW Committee meeting, despite the eight vote absence that rendered the committee useless and thus having no quorum. Instead of deliberation and votes, Democrats spent than 54 minutes complaining about Republican “obstructionism.”

McCarthy is a controversial nominee specifically for her hard left political stance and her refusal to answer questions about the data used to justify EPA’s regulations. Republicans say the EPA, and in particular Gina McCarthy, are killing jobs in the US. They sent a letter in March of this year requesting information on questionable emails, transparency, and the rules being implemented to regulate hydraulic fracturing.
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