A Republican lawmaker told Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt to resign Tuesday after controversial reports broke calling his ethics into question, becoming the first GOP lawmaker to do so.
“Major policy differences aside, @EPAScottPruitt’s corruption scandals are an embarrassment to the Administration, and his conduct is grossly disrespectful to American taxpayers. It’s time for him to resign or for @POTUS to dismiss him,” Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
Major policy differences aside, @EPAScottPruitt‘s corruption scandals are an embarrassment to the Administration, and his conduct is grossly disrespectful to American taxpayers. It’s time for him to resign or for @POTUS to dismiss him. https://t.co/gXWLDffqam
— Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) April 3, 2018
Pruitt came under fire after a report last week revealing the EPA chief was renting a condominium linked to a Canadian energy company’s lobbying firm during the same time he approved their pipeline extensions plan.
Pruitt paid $50 dollars a day to rent the condo, which is owned by the wife of the head of the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen.
Following that report, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicted last week that Pruitt may be the next member of Trump’s cabinet to be ousted from the administration.
“I don’t know how you survive this one, and if he has to go, it’s because he never should’ve been there in the first place,” Christie told ABC on Sunday.
President Trump called Pruitt on Monday and to express his support of the Cabinet secretary, telling him, “We got your back.”
Another report came out Tuesday morning detailing how Pruitt used an administrative loophole to give two of his aides significant raises, despite White House objections.
Curbelo is a founder of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, a group with more than 70 members that advocates for policy to combat climate change.
He opposed the Trump administration’s decision to depart from the Paris climate change agreement.
Reporter Josh Siegel contributed to this story.
