Last Updated Apr 26, 2018 10:27 AM EDT
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is testifying before the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee on the EPA’s FY2019 budget, but Thursday’s hearing is most likely to focus on Pruitt’s string of controversies that have prompted many to call for his ouster.
Pruitt has not only come under fire for habitually traveling first class or by military jet at considerable taxpayer expense but he is now also is under investigation by House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy for a housing arrangement in Washington, D.C., in 2017. ABC News first reported that Pruitt had lived in a Capitol Hill apartment owned by the wife of a fossil fuels lobbyist and rented the space for $50 a night – only paying for nights that he slept there.
The EPA chief has also drawn criticism for his 20-member full time security detail that, according to the Associated Press, costs upward of $3 million. Pruitt most recently raised eyebrows for his decision to install a phone booth in his office, which cost the agency $43,000. He argued it was necessary for him to discuss classified information.
Despite the litany of questionable ethical practices, President Trump has defended Pruitt as doing a “fantastic job” at the EPA and expressed his confidence in him staying on at the agency. Pruitt will face another round of questions on the Hill later this afternoon in a separate hearing on the EPA’s budget.
In opening remarks, Ranking Democrat on the subcommittee Paul Tonko told Pruitt he had “failed as a steward of the environment” and has a tendency to “abuse” his position for “personal gain.
“Your conduct as administrator has demonstrated a lack of respect for American tax payers,” Tonko added, slamming Pruitt on his lack on transparency, lack of contrition and fitness for the job at EPA.
Fellow Democrat Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey said Pruitt has brought “secrecy” and “scandal” to the EPA, suggesting that in any other administration — Republican or Democrat — Pruitt would have been “long gone” by now as the EPA administrator.
“I am confident that these investigations will affirm what I have come to believe is true: you are unfit to hold public office and undeserving of the public trust,” added Pallone.
Pruitt fired back in his opening remarks, saying that many of the stories about him are “half truths” and “don’t represent reality.”
“Facts are facts and fiction is fiction, and a lie doesn’t become truth just because it appears on the front page of the newspaper. Much of what has been targeted toward me and my team has been half truth, or at best stories so twisted they do not resemble reality,” said Pruitt.
“Those who attack the EPA and me are doing so because they want to attack and derail the president’s agenda and this administration’s priorities, I’m simply not going to let that happen,” added Pruitt.
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