Pruitt blames everything from raises, to flights, to soundproof booth on staffers
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The first of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s two House appearances on Thursday, this one before the the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, was introduced by Republican John Shimkus as being about “policy and stewardshipPruitt blames everything from raises, to flights, to soundproof booth on staffers
The first of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s two House appearances on Thursday, this one before the the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, was introduced by Republican John Shimkus as being about “policy and stewardship.” But throughout the day, Republicans ignored the stewardship part of that charter, and attacked Democrats for any question they asked Pruitt about his outlandish actions or expenditures at the EPA. But Democrats persisted in asking. And Scott Pruitt continued his pattern of denying responsibility for anything and everything in his department. It’s a good thing the EPA doesn’t regulate the emissions of metaphorical busses, because Pruitt lined them up to mow down his staff with an un-surprising regularity. When California Democratic Tony Cárdenas asked about Pruitt’s expensive phone booth, Pruitt reached new levels of being unaware of events in his own agency. Pruitt: I did have a phone call come in, of a sensitive nature, and I did not have access to secure communications. I gave direction to my staff to address that. And out of that came a $43,000 expenditure that I did not approve. That is something that ... Cárdenas: So you’re not taking responsibility for the $43,000 that was spent in your office? You’re saying that staff did it without your knowledge? Pruitt: Correct. Career individuals at the agency took that process through and signed off on it all the way through. Cárdenas: So you were not involved in that? Pruitt: I was not involved in the approval of the $43,000 and if I had known about it, Congressman, I would have refused it. Somehow, either all EPA administrators previous to Pruitt never had a sensitive communication, or they found the two secure communications facilities that already existed in the EPA office adequate to their needs. But according to Pruitt, he made an innocent request, and those “career individuals” were to blame. Because Pruitt did not accept the blame for anything. Nothing at all. Meanwhile, Republicans spent their time between arguing over whether the EPA should be supporting small oil refineries, large oil refineries, or just all oil refineries. And Republicans unveiled their new line of attack against every scientific study done in support of public health over the last five decades, as one congressman after another sneered at “secret science.” Read more