Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt received a slap on the wrist Wednesday from House appropriators who included a rider in a $35 billion spending bill that blocks Pruitt from spending more than $50 on a pen.
The fiscal 2019 appropriations bill was passed on a 25-20 vote in the Appropriations Committee and sent to the House floor. The bill includes funding for the EPA, Interior Department, and various other agencies.
The pen rider was the only amendment targeting Pruitt’s lavish spending scandals involving everything from a lobbyist-planned trip to Morocco to spending $43,000 on a soundproof booth. The rider was in response to recent reports that Trump’s EPA chief spent over $1,500 on pens.
Democrats attempted to pass other riders to restrict Pruitt’s travel by putting in place strict reporting requirements, which all failed on strict party line votes. Another Democratic rider sought to bolster the EPA’s inspector general with additional resources and funds to pursue investigations on Pruitt’s spending and other abuses. But the GOP said they were too political to support and voted to shoot them down.
“Once again we provide important funding for EPA programs that clean our environment, but do not increase the size of the federal bureaucracy,” Interior Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert said.
However, the renewable fuel industry received some minor victories in the bill when it comes to EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard program.
One amendment introduced by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, added report language “encouraging the EPA” to review a backlog of applications related to biogas fuel pathways under the Renewable Fuels Program.
Renewable fuel groups have complained that Pruitt has virtually ignored applications for new fuels and fuel feedstocks under the program, pulling back innovation for new types of second-generation biofuels.
Another rider was adopted related to the 15-percent ethanol fuel education and outreach program at the EPA.
[Related: Top Pruitt aide resigns after Trump Hotel mattress story]
