Press Releases

This week the number of investigations into embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s ethics lapses and wasteful spending grew substantially, and more may be announced in coming weeks.

The latest wave of investigations came as the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report saying that Pruitt had broken laws when he ordered the installation of a $43,000 “secure privacy booth” without informing Congress:

• The General Accountability Office has already determined that Pruitt broke laws when he installed a privacy booth at exorbitant expense; the nonpartisan investigator has also been asked to look into the raises Pruitt gave to staff using an obscure legal loophole and his purges of the EPA’s advisory boards.

• The House Oversight Committee asked Pruitt for a series of documents and witness interviews spanning many of his scandals.

• The House Energy and Commerce Committee is now “seeking information on a flood of ethics questions and lavish spending” by Pruitt.

• The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is investigating Pruitt’s use of multiple emails, and whether he evaded FOIA requests.

• The White House said it would probe Pruitt’s relationship with an energy lobbyist who gave him a special deal on his condo rent.

• The Office of Management and Budget will investigate Pruitt’s wasteful spending of $43,000 on a privacy booth.

• The EPA Office of the Inspector General is currently conducting investigations into Pruitt over (1) his possible violation of anti-lobbying laws (2) his spending on security (3) his expensive privacy booth, and (4A) his travel, a probe which it subsequently (4B) expanded (4C) twice.

The EPA Office of the Inspector General is also weighing requests by Reps. Don Beyer and Ted Lieu and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to determine whether Pruitt violated any laws or regulations with his  condo arrangement.

The Office of Government Ethics is not empowered to investigate or punish ethics lapses at the EPA, but its acting head still sent a letter outlining a series of concerns about Pruitt’s potential ethics lapses to EPA ethics officials.

While Pruitt remains in office, additional investigations of his many wasteful and unethical activities are likely to follow.

Representative Beyer is the Vice Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and the Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Oversight. He has led numerous oversight initiatives focused on Pruitt’s tenure at the EPA, was the first Member of Congress to issue a formal statement calling for Scott Pruitt’s resignation, and led 64 House Democrats urging the President to dismiss Pruitt. He serves as co-Chair of the Congressional Safe Climate Caucus.