President Donald Trump tweeted today that he has accepted the resignation of EPA chief Scott Pruitt. Pruitt had been the subject of numerous ethics investigations involving his travel, spending, use of staff, and favors by industry lobbyists.
The agency’s Deputy Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, will act as the agency’s leader until a new administrator is nominated by Mr. Trump and confirmed by the Senate.
Earlier today, the Trump Administration released a plan that it had been developing to reorganize federal agencies.
Called “Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century,” the plan calls for a number of sweeping changes to a number of different federal agencies, including combining the Departments of Education and Labor into a single agency. Among the other changes being proposed is a call to move all federal Graduate Fellowships to the National Science Foundation.
This plan is the culmination of a directive issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget after Mick Mulvaney was sworn in as its director at the beginning of the Trump Administration in 2017.
Many, if not most, of the proposals called for in the plan will require Congressional approval.
We will continue to monitor developments and provide updates.
The Senate is currently working on its version of the first “minibus” spending package that was cleared earlier in the spring by the House, a measure that contains three of the 12 spending bills for FY2019: Energy and Water Development; Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs. In anticipation of its passage, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) on the legislation, which often highlights provisions and/or policies of particular interest to the Administration in office. A copy of SAP is the here.
After the House cleared a $15-billion “rescissions” package two weeks ago, supporters of the measure in the Senate sought to bring it up in an expeditious manner earlier today. As a result of 50-48 vote on a procedural move against it, the package appears to be stalled.
The package seeks to rescind funds from prior years that are unspent or whose authorizations have expired, and is an attempt by the Administration and some in Congress to show that they want to rein in spending. Its supporters in the Senate may try to push it again later but it appears stalled for now.
In a notice posted yesterday, the Education Department announcement that it will delay again by a year the implementation of “gainful employment” (GE) regulations. Last July, the department decided to delay the implementation of the GE regulations until this July 1. This notice pushes back the regulations until July 1, 2019.
Read more about the background on the issue here.