Seats on the Democrats’ side of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing room were empty Wednesday during a boycott to delay the confirmation vote on Environmental Protection Agency administrator-designate Scott Pruitt. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Senate Republicans pushed Scott Pruitt’s nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency through committee on Thursday, using a procedural maneuver for the third time this week to ignore Democrats and send one of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees to the Senate floor.

Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee suspended the panel’s rules Thursday morning and approved Pruitt, with 11 votes in favor and none opposed. Democrats did not show up.

“It’s disappointing [Democrats] chose that course of action, but we will not allow it to obstruct,” Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said. “The minority wants political theater. The nation needs a new EPA administrator.”

Democrats accused Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, of stonewalling their requests for additional information. “We still have not received the relevant documents and the substantive answers we’ve requested from Mr. Pruitt,” the committee’s ranking Democrat, Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), said in a statement after the vote. “We have made our requests perfectly clear, and I believe they are entirely reasonable.”

[Everything you want to know about the Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings, votes]

(Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

The drama on Capitol Hill is unfolding at a time when Democrats, under intense pressure from liberal activists, have become increasingly emboldened to block Trump’s agenda and appointees.

Democrats were enraged by the administration’s executive order issued over the weekend to bar travel to the United States by people from seven majority-

Muslim countries. They galvanized around the firing of acting attorney general Sally Yates, who was dismissed for refusing to enforce the ban.

Some Democrats were also angered by the president’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Tuesday night, arguing that Republicans cannot expect them to swiftly approve the selection after their blockade of then-President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.

Democrats’ committee boycotts are not expected to bar any Trump nominees from confirmation. But Trump’s pick for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, is encountering head winds in the form of opposition from two GOP senators.

Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) signaled Wednesday they do not plan to support DeVos, leaving Democrats one vote shy of the number needed to block her nomination. Murkowski and Collins cited uncertainty about whether DeVos, an avid supporter of charter schools and school vouchers, is sufficiently committed to helping public schools.

Republicans also advanced this week the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for attorney general, and they finalized confirmation of former ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson for secretary of state by a vote of 56 to 43.

Six high-ranking Trump nominees have been approved by the full Senate: Tillerson; Elaine Chao as transportation secretary; retired generals John F. Kelly and Jim Mattis at the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department; Mike Pompeo to lead the CIA; and Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“I think that DeVos will finish on Monday and then Sessions I think will be the next one up,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.).

When Democrats boycotted a Senate Finance Committee meeting Wednesday, Republicans reacted by suspending the rules to approve Steven T. Mnuchin as treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as health and human services secretary. Their nominations now head to the Senate floor for up-or-down votes, although it is unclear when they will occur.

“Republicans on this committee showed up to do our jobs,” committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said. “Yesterday, rather than accept anything less than their desired outcome, our Democrat colleagues chose to cower in the hallway and hold a press conference.”

Separately, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday approved Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) to lead the Office of Management and Budget on an 8-to-7 vote. Among the yes votes was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who had suggested he might vote against Mulvaney given his stance on curtailing defense spending. On Thursday, McCain said he voted for Mulvaney to allow a full Senate debate on his nomination, but warned that he continues to have concerns.

The Senate Budget Committee, which also held hearings on the nomination, also approved Mulvaney on Thursday morning on a party-line vote of 12 to 11.

“Democrats are going to keep fighting back,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). “We are going to stand with people across the country. And we will keep pushing Republicans to put country above party and stand with us.”

[Fact Checker: Senate Democrats’ misleading language on a 60-vote ‘standard’ for Supreme Court nominees]

In committee, GOP members incensed by Democratic boycotts spent the first part of the week exploring how they could quickly approve nominees such as Price and Mnuchin and punish Democrats for their absences.

Staffers for the Finance panel scoured its lengthy rule book and discovered it permits the majority party to temporarily suspend the rules and meet without Democrats. Hatch said he consulted the Senate parliamentarian, who serves as a referee in all disputes in committees and on the Senate floor, who said doing so was within bounds.

After weeks of back-and-forth about Trump’s nominees, “the boycott was the last straw,” explained Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who pushed staffers to explore their options.

Some members of the GOP dismissed accusations that the party is bending Senate procedure to quickly confirm Trump’s picks.

“I think people expect senators to show up for work and be there. It’s unfortunate,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said.

Democrats, meanwhile, defended their protests as necessary to register their frustration after a small group of Republicans refused to allow them to question nominees once new information came to light.

In the Environment and Public Works Committee, Republicans vented their frustration when Democrats did not show up for a vote on Pruitt that was scheduled for Wednesday.

A GOP aide displayed a chart designed to show how quickly past EPA nominees were confirmed. Notably missing, however, was Obama’s second EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy. Nominated in March 2013, McCarthy was not confirmed until July of that year — and at one point, Republicans on the committee boycotted a meeting to demand that McCarthy answer more questions.

“That was not a new president, newly elected,” said Barrasso, arguing that the GOP boycott differed because it happened during Obama’s second term. “A newly elected president, I believe, has a right to their Cabinet.”

Ed O’Keefe, Sean Sullivan and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

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