Oversight

While attending the White House’s “Media Row” event today to promote President Trump’s first 500 days in office, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was asked by Nexstar reporter Jessica Smith to explain “reports that he tried to help his wife become a Chick-fil-A franchisee,” (for which Pruitt used his position and official EPA resources, in clear violation of federal regulations). Here is… Read more »

The Hill Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) criticized President Trump on Tuesday for lashing out at the special counsel investigation and at NFL players who protest social justice issues in a series of early morning tweets. “Waking in an authoritarian mood, the President again denies athletes’ free expression of opposition to police brutality, and attacks an investigation he demanded… Read more »

Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Peter Welch (D-VT) today wrote to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly requesting further details about the decision to grant security clearances to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump despite lapses in their original Standard Form-86’s (SF-86). The lawmakers requested that an explanation be included in a… Read more »

As the growing number of investigations into EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s misconduct makes the President’s ongoing decision not to fire him look more ridiculous by the day, Pruitt last week found new ways to disgrace his public office: AP: “Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA… Read more »

Rep. Don Beyer today issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s directive to the Department of Energy to order grid operators to purchase power from coal and nuclear power plants, without credible justification for such an act: “Today Donald Trump is ginning up a fake grid emergency to bail out donors in the coal industry, while ignoring a real grid emergency that has… Read more »

Think Progress Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has spent $3.5 million in taxpayer dollars on personal security in just his first year in the position, CBS News revealed Friday. This is far more than his two predecessors from the Obama administration, who CBS News says spent between $1.6 to $2 million annually on security. EPA spokesman Jahan… Read more »

Rep. Don Beyer today led a group of five House Democratic leaders requesting information from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) about Pruitt’s legal defense fund. Pruitt confirmed the existence of the fund to Senators in a hearing last week, but key details have not yet been made public or provided to Congress, which potentially raises a… Read more »

The Hill House Democrats on Thursday sent letters to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt and the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) requesting information on a legal defense fund set up by Pruitt to defend himself in the midst of multiple scandals. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, and a… Read more »

Rep. Don Beyer today issued the following statement on reports that Jared Kushner had been granted a permanent security clearance: “Today the White House and Jared Kushner’s representatives are saying that the decision to grant Mr. Kushner’s clearance was made by career personnel, and that this decision was the deserved outcome of an above-board process. Both claims are false or… Read more »

Scott Pruitt today admitted in a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to violating federal regulations when he accepted the services of his direct subordinate, Millan Hupp, without paying her [exchange here]. Hupp assisted Pruitt in his housing search last year, Pruitt confirmed, without pay, a violation of the Code of Federal Regulations (administrative law governing federal… Read more »