Menendez: Pruitt Hiring Practices at EPA ‘Deeply Disturbing’

Senator renews call for Pruitt to resign amid several lapses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) called today’s preliminary report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of the Inspector General (IG) investigation into Administrator Scott Pruitt’s questionable hiring practices “deeply disturbing.”  The IG investigation was launched in direct response to Sen. Menendez’s urging.

“Last October, I commissioned an Inspector General investigation into EPA’s hiring practices following reports that Administrator Pruitt had appointed a chemical lobbyist to serve in EPA’s chemical safety office without going through the traditional civil service hiring process, or through Senate confirmation,” said Sen. Menendez.  “Today’s interim IG report shows Administrator Pruitt flouted the law on multiple occasions to give massive raises to favored staffers.  This hiring authority was enacted by Congress primarily to allow EPA to bring in technical and scientific experts to address time-sensitive challenges and environmental emergencies—not to use as a slush fund to hire corporate lobbyists and political allies.  His actions were clearly designed to circumvent Senate confirmation and civil service protections, and are deeply disturbing.  Even more troubling, is Administrator Pruitt’s prioritization of using taxpayer dollars to give his loyalists fat, seemingly unsubstantiated raises, while trying to gut critical environmental programs designed to protect our air quality and drinking water.  I would encourage the Inspector General to follow through with this important investigation, and look forward to reviewing its findings.”

According to the interim IG report, Administrator Pruitt gave one staffer a $66,244 or 67.6% increase, and another a $48,080 or 72.3% raise.

Sen. Menendez, in an October letter to EPA IG Arthur A. Elkins, Jr., was the first to call for an investigation into Pruitt’s use of “administratively determined” hiring practices, and the extent to which these practices were used to circumvent EPA standards.

The EPA IG report was released the same day Government Accountability Office (GAO) General Counsel Thomas H. Armstrong reported on Administrator Pruitt’s purchase of a $43,000 soundproof phone booth, which exceeded the $5,000 limit for furnishing, redecorating or otherwise making improvements to agency heads’ offices.  In response to that report, Menendez tweeted, “That’s $43k that could have been spent on clean air programs, testing water quality, or on a moving company to get Scott Pruitt the hell out of the EPA. #PruittMustResign.”