Claim: GOP senators from NC come out against Trump EPA nominee.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Scott Pruitt
text: officials who remained anonymous. However, two additional officials confirmed that presidential Chief of Staff John F. Kelly had expressed the administration's displeasure over being caught unaware by some of the ethical problems Pruitt's conduct raised. Senate Environment Committee Chair John Barrasso of Wyoming, supported Pruitt, as did Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. Former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler's nomination as Deputy Administrator was submitted to become Pruitt's deputy in 2017, but was not confirmed. It was resubmitted in 2018. He was confirmed as Deputy Administrator of the EPA on April 12, 2018, by a mostly party line vote of 53–45,

title: Joe Manchin
text: for most of the Trump nominees. He was the only Democrat to vote in confirmation of Trump cabinet appointees Jeff Sessions and Steven Mnuchin, one of two Democrats who voted to confirm Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator, and one of three who voted to confirm Rex Tillerson. In June 2017, Manchin voted to support President Trump's $350 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. In his 2018 campaign for Senate, Manchin announced that he supports Trump's proposal to construct a border wall along the southern border of the continental United States. He also said that he regrets voting for Hillary Clinton

title: Gina McCarthy
text: Republican governor of New Jersey and EPA administrator under President George W. Bush, stated: “It’s not about [McCarthy], it’s about the agency... Republicans lost the [presidential] election and they have to realize that this is the president’s choice of nominee. They can go after the president, but Gina McCarthy should get an up-and-down vote.” On July 18, 2013, the Senate confirmed McCarthy as the 13th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency by a vote of 59-40, largely along party lines. On September 11, 2015, 26 U.S. representatives introduced a resolution impeaching McCarthy. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee

title: Scott Pruitt
text: arrangements by the EPA's inspector general. House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, a Republican, started a probe into Pruitt in early April 2018 over his housing arrangements. President Donald Trump defended Pruitt, saying "Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!" By early April 2018, "Politico" reported that the number of mushrooming scandals, leaks and staff disapproval of Pruitt's expenditures and ethical conflicts had created chaos at the EPA and put morale at an all-time low. Three Republican Senators joined the criticism, including Susan Collins, who had voted against his confirmation, as well as

title: Cabinet of Donald Trump
text: Senate in a 54-45 vote, officially giving her the post, and making her the first full-time female CIA director. The nomination of an Administrator-designate is reviewed during hearings held by the members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, then presented to the full Senate for a vote. On December 7, 2016, Scott Pruitt, Attorney General of Oklahoma was selected to be the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In response to the nomination, Pruitt said, "I intend to run this agency in a way that fosters both responsible protection of the environment and freedom for American businesses." During his

title: Andrew R. Wheeler
text: EPA on April 12, 2018, by a mostly party-line vote of 53–45, which included three Democratic Senators: Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Donnelly. Since being sworn in, Wheeler has had at least three meetings with former lobbying clients of his in a potential violation of the Trump administration's ethics pledge and the promises that Wheeler made during his confirmation hearing. Scott Pruitt announced on July 5, 2018, he would be resigning effective July 6. He left Wheeler as the acting head of the agency. Later, on November 16, 2018, Wheeler was nominated to be Administrator of the EPA, after

title: Andrew R. Wheeler
text: plants. Wheeler set up a meeting between Murray and Energy Secretary Rick Perry in March 2017; at the meeting, Murray advocated for the rollback of environmental regulations and for protections for the coal industry. In October 2017, Wheeler was nominated by President Donald Trump to become Deputy Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. His nomination was returned to the White House on January 3, 2018 as the Senate had adjourned at the end of 2017 without taking up the nomination (Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6.). His nomination was resubmitted and he was confirmed as Deputy Administrator of the

title: Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration
text: him in 2017 and Trump resubmitted his name in January 2018. In March 2018, Wheeler commented to CNN that the EPA is "brainwashing our kids." His nomination was confirmed on April 12, 2018, by a mostly party line vote of 53-45, that included three Democratic Senators. Ken Cook the president of the Environmental Working Group commented on Wheeler's appointment calling Wheeler a coal and chemical "shill" and saying, "Before the Trump administration, it would have been inconceivable that a coal and chemical industry lobbyist with a long history of hostility toward environmental policy would be the number two at the

title: Michael Dourson
text: DuPont-sponsored recommendation of 210 ppb. The concentration of PFOA in the Lubeck, West Virginia public water supply was at that time 1 ppb. In July 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Dourson to become Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. His nomination was sent to the United States Senate on July 19, 2017. His hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works took place on October 4, 2017. During the hearing, he was criticized by Democrats for his ties to the chemical industry. Dourson defended himself to the satisfaction of the

title: First 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency
text: gas and coal industry" in a case brought to court by the Center for Media and Democracy. Lawmakers had criticized Pruitt who sued the EPA 14 times on behalf of the State of Oklahoma. Trump nominated Alexander Acosta as Secretary of Labor on February 16, when his first nominee Andrew Puzder stepped down under a wave of criticism for having employed an illegal immigrant as a former housekeeper, for his "remarks on women and employees at his restaurants" and for his "rancorous 1980s divorce". According to a database compiled by the "Washington Post" in collaboration with the Partnership for Public

title: Joe Manchin
text: to prohibit the United States Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas. He was also one of four Democratic senators to vote against the Stream Protection Rule. In 2012 Manchin supported a GOP effort to "scuttle Environmental Protection Agency regulations that mandate cuts in mercury pollution and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants", while West Virginia's other senator, Jay Rockefeller, did not. Manchin criticized Obama's environmental regulations as a "war on coal" and demanded what he described as a proper balance between the needs of the environment and the coal business. The "Los Angeles Times" has noted that while

title: Tim Scott
text: 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging the President to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Agreement. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Scott has received over $540,000 from oil, gas and coal interests since 2012. Tim Scott did not support Trump's nominee,Oregon's Ryan Bounds, to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, effectively "derailing" the nomination. His reasoning to do so was based on Bounds' perceived "bigoted statements he made as a Stanford student in the 1990s." Marco Rubio joined him in opposing the nomination shortly after, prompting Mitch McConnell to withdraw

title: Susan Combs
text: vote in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. However, the full Senate did not take up her nomination and sent it back to the White House at the end of 2017. In 2018, the Trump administration re-nominated Combs to the same position. More than 70 conservation organizations sent a letter to the Senate opposing her nomination. Combs is the third political appointee named as “acting” assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks since Trump took office. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke appointed Aurelia Skipwith, a former Monsanto employee, to the role in April 2017. “Putting Combs in charge

title: Scott Pruitt
text: laws" and that they believed that he had not "put the public's welfare ahead of private interests". Senate Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to delay a vote until after the release of a batch of emails ordered by an Oklahoma judge. On February 17, 2017, the Senate confirmed Pruitt, by a vote of 52–46, to be the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The vote was mostly along party lines, with Republican Susan Collins voting against, and Democrats Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp voting in favor (Republican John McCain and Democrat Joe Donnelly did not vote). Pruitt was sworn in the same

title: Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration
text: 2018, President Trump tweeted, "I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this." At the time of his resignation Pruitt was facing numerous ethics investigations. In 2017 Trump submitted Andrew Wheeler as Deputy Administrator of the EPA. Wheeler has worked as a lawyer and lobbyist, specializing in energy and environmental policy. He is a critic of nationwide limits on greenhouse gas emissions and has supported the continued use of fossil fuels. The Senate rejected

title: Thomas Farr
text: 3, 2018, Farr's nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate. On January 5, 2018, President Trump announced his intent to renominate Farr to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. On January 8, 2018, his renomination was sent to the Senate. Farr was unanimously rated as "well qualified" by the American Bar Association.On January 18, 2018, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 11–10 vote. Farr's nomination was opposed by the Congressional Black Caucus due to Farr's role as a lawyer defending North Carolina voting

title: Gina McCarthy
text: a week from Alberta's carbon-intensive oilsands to the U.S. Gulf Coast". While the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works approved the nomination in a vote along party lines on May 16, the nomination was stalled on the Senate floor. In the interim, Bob Perciasepe served as the EPA's acting administrator. David Vitter, the ranking Republican on the Committee, posed 600 of a total 1,100 questions, to McCarthy. The Committee Republicans demanded responses from McCarthy on five "transparency requests." The delayed nomination became the longest period on record that the agency was without a leader. Christine Todd Whitman, a former

title: Joe Manchin
text: professing environmental concerns, he has consistently stood up for coal, saying "no one is going to stop using fossil [fuels] for a long time." He "does not deny the existence of man-made climate change," wrote the "Los Angeles Times", but "is reluctant to curtail it." In February 2017, he was one of only two Democratic senators to vote to confirm Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In June 2017, Manchin supported President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, saying he supported "a cleaner energy future" but that the Paris deal failed to strike "a balance between

title: Heidi Heitkamp
text: although the Army Corps of Engineers had refused to approve permits needed to complete the Dakota Access pipeline, that would change under President-elect Trump. She said that she understood those who opposed the construction of the pipeline through Native American land, but added: "I just think that this fight is not winnable." In February 2017, Heitkamp was one of two Democratic senators to vote to confirm Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In March 2017, she issued a statement supporting Trump's approval of Keystone XL, calling it "commonsense." She also voted against the Stream Protection Rule. Heitkamp

title: John James (U.S. Senate candidate)
text: Donald Trump on July 27, 2018, just 11 days before the GOP primary. James won the GOP nomination to face Stabenow, defeating Pensler, taking 55 percent of the vote compared to Pensler's 45 percent. On November 6, 2018, he was defeated by incumbent Debbie Stabenow by a margin of 6.54%, becoming the first Republican Senate candidate in Michigan to come within 10 percentage points since Spencer Abraham lost reelection in 2000. Due to his strong showing against Stabenow, James is considered the favorite to win the GOP nomination to take on Michigan's other incumbent Democratic Senator, one-term Sen. Gary Peters