Congress grills EPA chief over allegations of ethics violations

The House Environment Subcommittee had both policy and administrative questions for him, with an emphasis on the latter.

Pallone said Pruitt has instead created “scandal after scandal”.

Pruitt first testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday morning, which will be followed by an appearance in the House Appropriations Committee at 2 p.m.

The public grilling comes amid erosion in support for Pruitt among fellow Republicans after a monthlong swarm of negative headlines about outsized security spending, first-class flights and a sweetheart condo lease.

“When we met in December, you pledged to be more transparent, you promised to do a better job providing technical assistance, sending witnesses to hearings and responding to congressional requests”.

Pruitt said he recently made a decision to stop flying first-class despite the EPA previously saying it was a necessary measure to protect him from the public.

It’s unclear whether Pruitt’s testimony will satisfy the White House.

Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and several other republicans on the committee lauded Pruitt’s performance at the agency and agreed that reports misconduct were a tool of distraction. “He serves at the pleasure of the president”.

Pruitt has been among Trump’s most controversial Cabinet members. “I’m not going to let that happen”. “We’re evaluating these concerns and we expect the EPA administrator to answer for them”, Sanders said. “They’re just that, they’re allegations, and I think we need to hear what he has to say, and I think there will be good explanations”.

“I gave direction to my staff to address that”, Pruitt added, referring to what he called his lack of access to secure communications – even though the EPA already had areas to conduct secure communications. As the New York Times notes, the EPA administrator also insists that he doesn’t have anything to hide. Pruitt then lied by saying the lobbyist did not have business before the EPA.

The administrator repeatedly claimed in the Fox interview that he did not know about the pay raises, or who signed off on them, before they were made or at the time they were made. In the afternoon hearing, Pruitt said he was unaware of the “amount” of the raises.

Democratic lawmakers that oppose Pruitt’s regulatory rollbacks have seized on his scandals, with 170 of them calling for his resignation. On the defensive, the EPA chief said “half-truths” and “twisted” allegations were an effort to undermine the Trump administration’s anti-regulatory agenda. Financial documents obtained by the Associated Press revealed that over his first year as administrator, Pruitt spent nearly $3 million on the security team. At that point, he defended Pruitt’s actions.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is taking issue with Administrator Scott Pruitt invoking an internal review of security threats to justify spending taxpayer money on first-class airfare. These new rules brought almost half of Alaska and a total area in the lower 48 states equivalent to the size of California under the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction. The document defends his use of first-class travel, enhanced security, a low-priced room he rented from a lobbyist and his use of four email addresses. “Scott is doing a great job!”

Marc Short, a senior Trump aide and longtime Koch brothers political operative, remains one of the few in the administration willing to defend him, administration officials said.

Later in the hearing, Pruitt said, “I was aware of one of those individuals” who was receiving a raise, in response to questions from Rep. Ryan Costello (R-IL), another Republican member of the environment subcommittee who criticized Pruitt’s spending decisions.

“In my flawless world, the president would fire [Pruitt]”, he told E&E News.