Udall targets beleaguered head of EPA
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Udall is keeping a close eye on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, and based on the New Mexico Democrat’s bruising comments at an EPA budget hearing this week, he is not impressed. The typically congenial Udall, who has called for Pruitt’s resignation, didn’t even wait for his turn to ask questions to blast the beleaguered Cabinet member in the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday. Udall let him have it in his opening statement.
“What I am worried about, Mr. Pruitt, is that you have been treating your position of public trust as a golden ticket for extravagant travel and fine dining and as a platform to cozy up to media personalities, political donors and polluters,” said Udall, who spoke in even tones and appeared to be reading from a written statement. “I’m worried you’re spending all your time enriching yourself and your friends while betraying your mission to protect human health and the environment.”
Later, during questioning, Udall asked Pruitt about reports that he had ordered his security detail to use sirens when driving to meetings around Washington.
“Let’s get the record straight: Did your security detail use sirens while you were in the car for non-emergencies, yes or no?” Udall asked Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general.
Pruitt answered that the “policies were followed to the best of my knowledge by each of the agents that serve me.” That didn’t seem to satisfy Udall.
“You personally requested that on a number of trips?” the senator asked Pruitt.
“No, I don’t recall that happening,” Pruitt replied.
Udall countered that a February 2017 email from security chief Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta told others at the agency that Pruitt “encourages the use” of lights and sirens. Perrotta has since resigned.
Udall has been nipping at Pruitt’s heels for weeks. He’s asked the General Accounting Office to examine whether the EPA administrator broke federal law when he spent $43,000 for a private phone booth in his office and didn’t inform Congress of the expenditure.
Asked about Udall’s ire after the hearing, Pruitt’s spokesman, Jahan Wilcox, said his boss is focused on business, including adjudicating claims from Navajos and other New Mexicans harmed by the 2015 Gold King Mine spill.
“From allowing those affected by the Gold King Mine spill the opportunity to be heard, to declaring a war on lead and cleaning up toxic Superfund sites, Administrator Pruitt is focused on advancing President Trump’s agenda of environmental stewardship,” Wilcox said.
‘NO’ VOTE ON HASPEL: Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday made good on his pledge to oppose the nomination of Gina Haspel, who appears likely to become the first female director of the CIA.
“In my view, her failure to take personal responsibility for any role she might have played in the CIA’s detention and interrogation program and her conflicting replies to questions about the destruction of videotapes related to the program make her unsuitable to lead the CIA,” Heinrich said after Wednesday’s vote.
Haspel’s nomination cleared the Republicanled committee Wednesday on a 10-5 vote, and she is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate.