[Source: The Washington Post] Given the pace at which the Environmental Protection Agency chief has rolled back his predecessors’ work (or at least attempted to), Scott Pruitt secured his place as a one of the most consequential Cabinet-level officials within the Trump administration with an aggressive first year at the helm.
The Post’s Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin take stock of Pruitt’s achievements at the end of 2017, which include moving assertively to shrink the agency through buyouts and, in his words, “revitalizing” it by focusing on areas such as the Superfund cleanup program. As the chart below indicates, Pruitt has succeeded compared to other department heads:
Despite environmental advocates vowing to battle him at every turn, Pruitt seems confident that his vision of limited government will take hold even after he leaves office.
“I’m pretty sanguine about our ability to defend our actions here at the agency, so long as we do things timely and within the text of the statute,” he said in an interview. “The problem the agency had historically is when [officials] have not done things in the time frame they were supposed to do something. That’s invited lawsuits that then allow others to set the priorities.”
Source: The Washington Post
January 2, 2018
