Lobbying ties fuel criticism of EPA chief
Lobbyist linked to rental condo had roster of clients facing agency
WASHINGTON—The energy lobbyist whose wife leased a bedroom to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt last year had a roster of clients with business before the EPA, handing fodder to critics who are demanding that Pruitt be fired.
J. Steven Hart, the chairman of Williams & Jensen, has said he didn’t personally lobby the EPA in 2017 or this year. But plenty of his corporate clients had pending matters with the agency, the lead federal regulator governing air and water pollution nationwide, according to a Bloomberg News review of lobbying disclosures.
“J. Steven Hart is a very active lobbyist who has had considerable contact with the EPA and representing numerous clients before the EPA,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the watchdog group Public Citizen.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he still had confidence in the embattled EPA chief, who is strongly backed by business leaders and prominent conservatives who have mounted a campaign of support.
“He’s been very courageous. Hasn’t been easy,” Trump told reporters Thursday on Air Force One as he returned from a trip to West Virginia. “I can tell you, at EPA he’s done a fantastic job.”
Nevertheless, Pruitt’s standing at the White House is not secure. Top administration officials are deeply skeptical of Pruitt’s explanation over how two close aides secured raises worth tens of thousands of dollars over the White House’s objection, according to people familiar with the matter. And they are frustrated by the barrage of damaging headlines about Pruitt, from the condo rental to a New York Times report Thursday that aides who questioned him were shifted to other jobs.
Questions about Pruitt’s lease stem from a bedroom he rented in a Capitol Hill condo from health care lobbyist Vicki Hart under terms that allowed him to pay $50 a day—but only for the days it was occupied. Pruitt’s adult daughter also stayed there while working as a White House intern. Canceled checks reviewed by Bloomberg show he paid $6,100 to use the room over roughly six months last year.
But the name printed on the lease is that of Vicki Hart’s husband, J. Steven Hart. His name was scratched out and hers written in its place on a copy of the lease included in an EPA memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
“Vicki Hart is the sole owner of this unit,” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said, when asked about the lease change.