Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing a tangle of accusations of unethical behavior ahead of his two hearings before Congress this week.
Scott Pruitt’s ethics problems, explained in 400 words
A simple explanation of the allegations against the EPA administrator.
Umair Irfan was a correspondent at Vox writing about climate change, energy policy, and science. He is a regular contributor to the radio program Science Friday. Prior to Vox, he was a reporter for ClimateWire at E&E News.
Questions about his conduct arose almost immediately after he was sworn in, when Pruitt displayed extreme paranoia by refusing to release his schedule to the public like past administrators, surrounding himself with a 24-hour security detail, and building a soundproof phone booth in his office.
Since then, journalists and investigators have revealed the phone booth cost $43,000 and that Pruitt’s security detail costs $3 million a year. We’ve also learned that he regularly flew first class, his security detail accompanied him on personal trips, and he paid next to nothing to rent a cushy condo on Capitol Hill owned by an energy lobbyist’s wife. Despite denials, the lobbyist did meet with Pruitt during his stay to discuss clients.
There are also concerns about Pruitt’s personnel decisions, like hiring his banker to run the Superfund program, allowing employees to keep side jobs as political consultants, and bypassing the White House to secure massive raises for two close aides.
These allegations were fleshed out by a whistleblower in a long report to congressional Democrats. It added details like the fact that Pruitt asked aides to find housing for him, that he used to lights and sirens to make it to dinner reservations, that he chose more luxurious hotels on international trips than those recommended by the State Department, and that he sidelined staffers who questioned his habits. The whistleblower also said he was threatened by the head of Pruitt’s security detail.
Government watchdogs now have more than a half-dozen investigations underway over these allegations. One, the Government Accountability Office, has already found that Pruitt violated two laws with his phone booth.
But Pruitt has managed to keep his job in part because he is one of President Trump’s most productive subordinates. He’s begun the process of undoing 22 regulations and has slowed the pace of work at the EPA to benefit coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and agriculture interests.
The big question is whether any of these concerns will sway the president, who has continued to support Pruitt, but whose chief of staff has reportedly called for him to be fired. Some Republicans have also said Pruitt should resign, but in a White House engulfed in chaos and spiraling legal problems, Pruitt doesn’t get much of the president’s attention.
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