Republican Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., is content to let at least a dozen investigations conclude before holding a single hearing on Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt’s numerous controversies over lavish security spending, a trip to Morocco, and the firing of staff that disagree with his willingness to spend taxpayers dollars on first-class accommodations.
Meanwhile, Democrats, who are prodding Barrasso to conduct oversight of Pruitt’s actions, are more than happy to keep driving up the number of investigations and reviews into the embattled EPA administrator.
Barrasso is the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which has direct oversight over the EPA. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the committee, is leading Democrats in pressuring Barasso to conduct the hearings.
Barrasso answered Democrats’ request for a hearing on Tuesday, saying he wants to wait until investigations by the Government Accountability Office, EPA’s inspector general, and other federal watchdogs play out before he holds a hearing into Pruitt’s travel and security expenses.
“It is appropriate to allow these entities to complete their work and examine their findings,” Barrasso said in the letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. “That way, we will be best positioned to address any remaining management challenges at EPA during our next hearing with the Administrator.”
But at this rate, waiting for all the investigations to conclude may take a long time, especially as the number of probes grows.
On Wednesday, while Democrats were grilling Pruitt in the Senate Appropriations Committee, Carper sent a letter to the EPA inspector general asking for an investigation into Pruitt’s former head of security, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta.
Carper suggests the security chief had worked to push many of Pruitt’s most expensive requests, such as round-the-clock security details and soundproof booths.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., led the charge in going after Pruitt at the Appropriations subcommittee hearing where he serves as the top Democrat.
Udall used the hearing to announce his call for yet another investigation into Pruitt, asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether Pruitt violated Appropriations law, which bans the use of taxpayer funds for “publicity and propaganda.”
The hearing was supposed to be focused on EPA’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal, but quickly got sidetracked.
The senator explained that Pruitt engaged in a “political speech via social media” when EPA tweeted on April 13 that the Senate did its “duty” by confirming Andrew Wheeler as EPA’s deputy administrator.
“The Democrats couldn’t block the confirmation of environmental policy expert and former EPA staffer under both a Republican and a Democrat president,” the EPA tweet said.
Pruitt admitted to the tweet being a mistake. But Udall’s point was to call out Pruitt’s tenure at the agency as a “betrayal of the American people.”
Pruitt’s defenders in the Senate, like Barrasso, do have a limit before they are forced to conduct oversight.
Barrasso did make clear in his Tuesday letter that he does “intend to call on the Administrator to testify before our committee.” Pruitt has only come before the environment committee once since becoming administrator.
For Barrasso, it’s all about doing due diligence by waiting.
“Rather than re-litgating the same issues that other committees have recently addressed, I think that It would be more useful to wait until we have all the facts,” he explained.
