WASHINGTON – The Republican chairman of the Senate committee with oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency plans to call the agency’s embattled chief Scott Pruitt to testify, specifically in response to multiple scandals and investigations surrounding the administrator.
Through a spokesperson, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., informed Reuters of his decision to compel Pruitt to come before the Environment and Public Works Committee to answer questions about his alleged abuse of his office.
Barrasso also formally requested Senate appropriators provide the EPA’s inspector general with “sufficient funding” to carry out ongoing investigations into Pruitt’s behavior.
“Scott Pruitt’s low-rent grifting has finally become an albatross for those who have supported and defended him even as the scandals and investigations mounted,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “It’s one thing when Pruitt’s swamp stench lingers over only him, but it appears to be infiltrating the airspace around Republicans in Congress and President Trump.”
Sen. Barrasso is the latest Republican senator to demonstrate growing impatience with Pruitt. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and close friend and political mentor to Pruitt, blasted the administrator during an appearance on Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham’s radio show and in an interview with The Washington Post this week.
Ingraham called on President Trump to fire Pruitt after learning he tasked an aide with reaching out to conservative donors for help getting his wife a job.
In her Tweet, Ingraham blasted Pruitt for damaging Trump.
And the same day, the conservative magazine National Review published an editorial calling for Pruitt’s dismissal.
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