Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will be testifying before the Senate environment panel in August amid an almost daily spate of scandals.
While the hearing won’t be specifically focused on Pruitt’s litany of scandals, the office of Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso has said that senators are welcome to ask Pruitt any questions they wish. Barrasso’s office told the Washington Examiner last week that he was expecting to hold a hearing with Pruitt by the end of the year.
“The hearing will give senators the opportunity to ask important questions and hear about the work being done at the agency,” the Wyoming Republican said Tuesday.
Barrasso sent a letter to Senate appropriators last week to make sure the EPA’s inspector general has enough money to continue its work. The office is investigating about a dozen potential ethics violations by Pruitt.
The scandals include everything from a visit to Morocco organized by a lobbyist, using taxpayer funds to pay for his security detail to accompany his family for a Disneyland vacation, to numerous first-class flights and expenditures for security devices such as a $43,000 soundproof booth for his office.
The government’s top ethics official sent a letter to the EPA inspector general last week, asking him to add new allegations to the list. Those include Pruitt’s use of agency staff to find his wife a job and negotiate a franchise deal with Chick-fil-A, in addition to fetching his favorite lotion from the Ritz-Carlton and a mattress from the Trump International Hotel.
The ethics official also told EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins to wrap up the investigations so the ethics office can advise the president on appropriate disciplinary action.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham called for the president to fire Pruitt last week, followed by the conservative National Review. Supporters such as Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said he was contemplating calling for Pruitt’s resignation, but has not come to that decision yet. Inhofe is a member of the Senate environment committee and is its former chairman.
