“Yes,” Pruitt replied. “As I indicated in my opening statement, I really believe that public participation, transparency in rule-making is very important.”
Pruitt’s answer was pretty nonsensical, since he’d been so withholding himself during the confirmation process: Democrats later boycotted the committee’s final vote to approve his nomination, citing his lack of response to their questions and failure to provide documents. (Pruitt told Democrats they could get the documents by contacting the office of the attorney general of Oklahoma — the office that he ran.) That same day, the Center for Media and Democracy sued Pruitt for failing to release emails they had requested over two years previously.