A Senate subcommittee on Thursday revealed unanimous support for a measure that called attention to the scandals that compel ought to engulfed the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Scott Pruitt.
The lawmakers sent a thinly subtle message to the agency and its embattled chief by including an amendment to a report that simmered down to a simple directive: Follow ethics rules.
The move by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Home, Environment and Related Agencies came after two prominent Republicans said they resolve to summon Pruitt to the Hill to testify about allegations of self-dealing and open-handed spending.
Most recently, Pruitt has come under fire for blaming his staff and security detail with running his errands and searching for application opportunities for his wife. That has led to allegations that Pruitt violated federal superintends that prohibit officials from compelling subordinates to do personal favors for them or saying their office to enrich themselves.
In a report linked to the Fiscal Year 2019 Inside, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, the senators tacked on the buttress amendment:
The Committee feels strongly that it is essential that powers provided funding in this Act comply with all applicable ethics bye-laws. To that end, the Committee directs that none of the funds made ready in this Act may be used in contravention of 5 CFR § 2635, the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Hands of the Executive Branch.
The language may seem vague, but Sen. Tom Udall, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, did not mince expresses in explaining the subcommittee’s intent. He said the amendment “addresses the ethics calumnies plaguing this administration.”
“I am appalled at the number of scandals piling up — markedly at the EPA,” he said. “Frankly, it’s hard to even keep track.”
Pruitt and EPA aspect about a dozen outstanding investigations into spending, policy and direction issues. Several investigators are probing the incident that unleashed a stream of subsequent media reports: Pruitt’s arrangement to lease a Capitol Hill condo linked to an intensity lobbyist for just $50 a night, and only on nights he stayed there.
Until now, Republicans procure rarely sought to draw attention to Pruitt’s scandals, including during his illusions on the Hill. But following a report that Pruitt had an EPA aide tap Republican benefactresses to find a job for his wife, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., told Reuters that he afters Pruitt to address the steady flow of news reports in a hearing.
Sen. Joni Ernst tweeted that she subsidizes Inhofe’s call for a hearing. Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, has argued with Pruitt for months over his efforts to change a federal program that could negatively bearing the farmers in her state who supply corn for biofuels.
@SenJoniErnst: I support Sen. @JimInhofe’s shout for a hearing on EPA Administrator Pruitt’s scandals; and I continue to urge the President to be involved a hard look at Mr. Pruitt’s actions – as I do not feel that Mr. Pruitt is discharge a function @RealDonaldTrump’s best interests.
A spokesman for Sen. John Barrasso, chair of the Senate situation committee, also told Reuters the Wyoming Republican plans to ask Pruitt to assert before year’s end.
Pruitt is also losing support among hidebound media. On Wednesday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham and the National Critique called for Pruitt to step down.
President Donald Trump has so far turn thumbs down oned to fire Pruitt, who is spearheading his administration’s efforts to roll back Obama-era environmental edicts.