Blumenthal Introduces Council on Environmental Quality Nominee, Connecticut Native Brenda Mallory Before Senate Confirmation Hearing

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Biden Administration’s nominee to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality Brenda Mallory before her confirmation hearing in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Blumenthal praised Mallory’s extensive expertise and experience, including working in the Environmental Protection Agency under Democratic and Republican administrations, and encouraged his Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support her nomination. Mallory was born and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut.

“I couldn’t be prouder than to introduce Brenda Mallory to the committee today,” Blumenthal said. “I couldn’t be prouder, because she is the best person for this job whom I know in the entire country and I couldn’t be prouder because she is a daughter of Waterbury, Connecticut. Although she has lived in Maryland for quite a few years, her roots are really in Waterbury and they reflect the values of that great city. A commitment to faith, family values, and tough work ethic, and a commitment to community that really was reflected in her father, a legend, the Reverend Thomas Mallory, who was so committed to caring for every individual and to bettering the community as a whole.”

The full transcript of his remarks can be found below.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I’m honored and humbled to appear before you and Ranking Member Capito this morning, and thank you to my colleague Representative Carson for being here.

I couldn’t be prouder than to introduce Brenda Mallory to the committee today. I couldn’t be prouder because she is the best person for this job whom I know in the entire country and I couldn’t be prouder because she is a daughter of Waterbury, Connecticut. Although she has lived in Maryland for quite a few years, her roots are really in Waterbury and they reflect the values of that great city. A commitment to faith, family values, and tough work ethic, and a commitment to community that really was reflected in her father, a legend, the Reverend Thomas Mallory, who was so committed to caring for every individual and to bettering the community as a whole.

Brenda Mallory really epitomizes the American dream. She was fortunate to go to a private school, an all-girls school, Westover, on a scholarship, changing the trajectory of her life. She was the first in her family to go to college, Yale, and then to Columbia Law School. She’s married to Mark Schneider, also a lawyer and a former clerk for Justice Blackmun, I share that experience.

After graduating from Yale and then Columbia Law School, she spent time in private practice, helping businesses and developers do the right thing in their communities. And then she worked in the Environmental Protection Agency, spent half of her career fighting for the people of our country, serving in both Democratic and Republicans administrations. More recently, she worked for a nonprofit organization helping to advance environmental and natural resource protections.

In short, she knows these issues, environmental issues, natural resources issues from every side, and the Ranking Member Senator Capito used two words – bipartisan and common sense – to describe what the goals are of this committee, and Brenda Mallory is bipartisan and she has common sense in dealing with all of these issues. Remember that Congress established the Council on Environmental Equality under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon, obviously a Republican. Environmental values should be bipartisan and Brenda Mallory has lived those values without regard to partisan politics.

And I would stress about her, and it may be the most important quality that any of us in public life have, that she is a listener. I know that the Chair and Ranking Member pride themselves on listening to their constituents. She listens truly, adeptly, closely, carefully to people who have views different from hers as well as the same. And that quality I think is one that will stand her in good stead along with her commitment to coalition building, taking people from different sides of an issue bringing them together and making sure they understand each other and have a common goal. She’s committed to racial justice as well as environmental and social justice and she will make Waterbury and Connecticut proud of her record as the head of the Council on Environmental Quality.

I think, as I said at the outset, there is no one better in the country to take this position of Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality and I am hopeful that she will have the kind of bipartisan support she deserves.

Thank you Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Capito.

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