Pruitt’s Ethics Inquiries Widen, and GOP Support Shows Cracks

WASHINGTON — Some of the most reliable conservatives in Congress are starting to speak out against Scott Pruitt, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency who is facing a barrage of ethics and spending questions.

Previously, conservative Republicans had shown a reluctance to question the actions of top Trump administration officials. Their new outspokenness against a prominent architect of President Donald Trump’s regulatory rollback represents a major break from the past.

In an interview this week, Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said of Pruitt, “I think there are legitimate concerns about him.” He applauded Pruitt’s industry-friendly environmental policies, but said, “I think the president at some point is going to weigh in.” Boozman serves on the Senate environment panel as well as the powerful Appropriations Committee, which controls the EPA’s spending.

On Thursday, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the No. 2 ranking member of the Senate, said that Pruitt was “just fine” on policy, “but obviously this controversy continues to swirl and it needs to be resolved, one way or the other.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Senate Energy Committee, said she intended to summon Pruitt to her committee for questioning.

“The administration has a decision to make” on Pruitt’s future, she said.

Also Thursday, the EPA’s inspector general opened a new investigation into Pruitt’s use of the agency’s security team for personal travel. ​

Pruitt is expected to face a grilling next week when he is scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on the environment. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of the House Energy panel, said that Pruitt would have to answer the “many questions” that Walden and other representatives have about his performance.

It’s a far cry from a year ago, when the Senate confirmed Pruitt as head of the EPA and Republicans rhapsodized about the man who had built a career by suing the agency he would now lead. They celebrated Pruitt’s zeal to roll back Obama-era regulations on water and air pollution.

Now, however, Pruitt is caught in a barrage of questions surrounding his illegal purchase of an office phone booth, his expenditures on first-class travel and the ethics of his rental of a condominium linked to an energy lobbyist.

Pruitt’s fate ultimately depends on Trump, who has publicly supported him. But Republicans are not only calling for him to face further Congressional inquiry — Boozman in the interview also urged Pruitt to explain himself before his two powerful committees — but are also opening investigations into his spending.

On Wednesday, the White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, said he was opening an investigation into Pruitt’s decision to spend $43,000 on a secure phone booth for his office, after a Monday report by a congressional watchdog agency concluded that the expenditure was illegal.

Last week, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee, opened an investigation into Pruitt’s expenditures on first-class travel, which the EPA has said were necessary because passengers have made threatening remarks to Pruitt during flights. Gowdy, who gained prominence for his investigations into Hillary Clinton over the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, on Sunday had pointed words for Pruitt.

“I would be shocked if that many people knew who Scott Pruitt was,” Gowdy said on Fox News. “So the notion that I have to fly first class because I don’t want people to be mean to me, you need to go into another line of work if you don’t want people to be mean to you, like maybe a monk where you don’t come in contact with anyone.”

Privately, a number of Republican staffers and strategists say that last week’s Senate confirmation of Pruitt’s deputy, Andrew Wheeler — a former coal lobbyist who worked for years on Capitol Hill — would make Pruitt’s departure easier because Wheeler would be in place as acting EPA chief and could be relied upon to implement an agenda of rolling back environmental regulations. Some Republican lawmakers have also pointed out the similarities between Pruitt’s case and that of Tom Price, Trump’s former secretary of health and human services. Price was forced to resign after racking up at least $400,000 in travel bills for chartered flights.

“The ethical lapses associated with Scott Pruitt are troublesome,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said. “It will be the President’s call,” Cassidy added, noting: “He let Price go.”

Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist, suggested that, at a moment when Trump’s troubles include news conferences by a pornographic film actress, the raiding of his lawyer’s office and hotel room, and questions about his ties to Russia, the ethical questions surrounding Pruitt’s spending may have slid under the radar. But if they continue, he said, Republicans are unlikely to be sympathetic.

“Maybe when Pruitt’s 30-person Secret Service detail carries him through Disney World in a sedan chair like a mandarin, people will have had enough,” Castellanos wrote in an email. “That’s Pruitt’s real problem. Pruitt represents the opposite of Donald Trump’s populism: He thinks he is more worthy than the little people he represents.” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who leads the Senate Environment Committee, has long been a cheerleader for and defender of Pruitt. His home state of Wyoming is the nation’s largest producer of coal, and Barrasso has, in particular, celebrated Pruitt’s efforts to loosen rules on coal pollution.

But his tone changed markedly after the release of Monday’s report on Pruitt’s phone booth spending.

“The Government Accountability Office has found that EPA failed to notify Congress before installing this privacy booth,” Barrasso said in a statement. “It is critical that EPA and all federal agencies comply with notification requirements to Congress before spending taxpayer dollars. EPA must give a full public accounting of this expenditure and explain why the agency thinks it was complying with the law.”

Many of Pruitt’s critics from the right have zeroed in on the question of his use of taxpayer dollars. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a favorite of the Tea Party movement, said: “He needs to watch his expenditures. It’s important that we protect our American taxpayers.”

Of course Pruitt still has his champions in Congress — advocates who say that the attacks on his spending are manufactured by environmental activists who dislike his policies. “I think he’s doing a great job,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science Committee who has worked closely with Pruitt on efforts to change the EPA’s use of scientific research. “I don’t think we ought to be distracted by the agenda of his liberal opponents.”

“I think he’s the best EPA director we’ve ever had,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. “I think he is being criticized because he’s changing the agency in a very positive way.”

Last week a group of 21 conservative groups wrote a letter to Trump making the same point. “Precisely because of Pruitt’s record of leadership, radical environmentalists and the biased media are trying to force him out of office,” they wrote.

Nevertheless, GOP strategists see an important shift. “There are times when the legislative branch gets really sick and tired of the executive branch — and says so. I don’t think you’ve seen that in a while, " said John Feehery, a Republican strategist who worked for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former House Majority Leader Tom Delay. “Pruitt has made a lot of people very angry.”