Dem Lawmakers: Pruitt Wanted EPA Office In Hometown, Future Chief Of Staff Said

WASHINGTON, DC - December 7:  Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on December 7, 2017 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 7: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Decem... WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 7: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on December 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

In early 2017, according to a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Tuesday from three House Democrats, Pruitt directed his future chief of staff to explore the creation of an EPA office in Pruitt’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, even though an EPA office with authority over Oklahoma already existed in Dallas, Texas.

The letter — from Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Don Beyer (D-VA) of the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology — claims that Pruitt’s current chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, communicated with EPA officials while still technically staff director for the then-chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Words, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).

Jackson claimed to EPA officials that he was writing on Pruitt’s behalf, the Democrats’ letter said.

“In the e-mail,” the letter states, “Mr. Jackson directed EPA staff to identify proposed new office space in Tulsa that included a conference room, secure parking, would be able to accommodate 24/7 security, and included a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) for secure communication.”

EPA staff in turn, according to the letter, contacted the General Services Administration relaying the requests “as coming directly from Administrator Pruitt.”

The lawmakers sent an identical letter, which similarly requested relevant communications and plans regarding the proposed Tulsa office, to the General Services Administration.

The proposed office recalls several scandals Pruitt has faced during his tenure as EPA administrator.

The EPA inspector general announced in August of last year, for example, that his office would probe Pruitt’s taxpayer-funded trips home to Oklahoma. Pruitt’s agency illegally allocated funds, in the Government Accountability Office’s opinion, for a $43,000 phone booth in Pruitt’s D.C. office that the EPA first claimed, and then denied, was a SCIF. Pruitt also enjoys an unprecedentedly large 24/7 security detail.

And Jackson, Pruitt’s chief of staff, has repeatedly taken the fall for damaging stories.

Jackson, for example, took responsibility for the five-figure raises doled out to several top Pruitt advisers within their first months on the job. On Capitol Hill last week, though, Pruitt acknowledged he knew about at least one of those raises — just not the size of it, nor the process by which it was attained. He said that Jackson had been delegated authority to award raises.

The same blame-shifting occurred when lawmakers pressed Pruitt on his $43,000 office phone booth. The whole process, Pruitt explained, had occurred without his knowledge or approval.

“I was not involved in the approval of the $43,000,” Pruitt said. “And if I’d known about it … I would have refused it.”

“Establishing a new EPA office in Tulsa may be personally convenient for you, but it seems ethically questionable, professionally unnecessary, and financially unjustified,” the lawmakers wrote Tuesday.

Read the three Democratic lawmakers’ letter below:

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. He really does have a fondness for cones of silence.

  2. and included a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) for secure communication.

    Just what sort of sensitive compartmentalized information does the head of the EPA see?

  3. Avatar for caltg caltg says:

    He really has a fondness for ripping off the taxpayers, committing fraud, and destroying the environment. Hopefully, a special place in hell awaits him.

  4. Worse. Every. Day. The entire administration is a crazy quilt of corruption and craziness. It’s surreal, and I don’t mean odd or unusual. I mean you literally can’t believe the things that happen every day.

  5. Or even a special place in Hell here on Earth would be appropriate - since he’s now using his power and making it hot intentionally anyhow. Calling Karma: please take note of Pruitt.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

55 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for paulw Avatar for rob_beatty_walters Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for teenlaqueefa Avatar for bradbennett Avatar for sandyh Avatar for quitty Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for sickneffintired Avatar for tibetancowboy Avatar for decay500 Avatar for bkmn Avatar for pmaroneyb Avatar for caltg Avatar for rickjones Avatar for j.dave Avatar for evave2 Avatar for katex Avatar for yellowbeard Avatar for rascal_crone

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: