President Trump’s nominee for chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, Kathleen Hartnett White, may have plagiarized her testimony before the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works from previous Environmental Protection Agency nominees, according to a recent letter written by EPW Democrats.

“We are troubled that it appears that you have cut and pasted from the written answers of other nominees in your responses to questions that were submitted to you,” the letter reads. “In at least 18 instances […] your responses to these questions included language that also appears verbatim in responses to questions for the record received from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and EPA’s assistant administrator for air and radiation, Bill Wehrum.”

Specifically, the letter said that White’s written responses to questions on the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxins rule and about climate change were nearly identical to Wehrum and Pruitt, respectively.

White's testimony on MATS appears to draw directly from assistant administrator Bill Wehrum's testimony. (Senate EPW Democrats' letter to Kathleen White)

White's testimony on climate change appears to copy EPA administrator Scot Pruitt's previous testimony word for word. (Senate EPW Democrats' letter to Kathleen White)

The letter requests that White provide the committee with a list of the responses to each question that she either plagiarized or did not completely write herself, source citations for each item on that list and supply new answers to responses that represent her own views and effort.

About Jessie Bur

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.

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