Scott Pruitt Bypassed the White House to Give Big Raises to Favorite Aides

[brooklynite]

Source: The Atlantic

In early March, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt approached the White House with a request: He wanted substantial pay raises for two of his closest aides.

The aides, Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, were part of the small group of staffers who had traveled with Pruitt to Washington from Oklahoma, where he had served as attorney general. Greenwalt, a 30-year-old who had worked as Pruitt’s general counsel in Oklahoma, was now his senior counsel at the EPA. Hupp, 26, was working on his political team before she moved to D.C. to become the agency’s scheduling director.

...snip...

According to a source with direct knowledge of the meeting, held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, staffers from the Presidential Personnel Office dismissed Pruitt’s application. The White House, the source said, declined to approve the raises.

So Pruitt found another way.

A provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act allows the EPA administrator to hire up to 30 people into the agency, without White House or congressional approval. The provision, meant to help expedite the hiring of experts and allow for more flexible staffing, became law in 1996. In past administrations, it has been used to hire specialists into custom-made roles in especially stressed offices, according to Bob Perciasepe, a former acting EPA administrator.

Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/pruitt-epa/557123/

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I'm sure there'll be plenty of money in the budget to pay for the increases once Pruitt gets fired...

[tanyev]

1. Refitting the swamp.

[riversedge]

2. @EpaScottPruitt is cutting the @EPA, and Trump loves him!

I seriously doubt Trump cares about this. damn



....Word of the raises quickly began to circulate through the agency. The episode infuriated some staffers; to some political aides, it was evidence of Pruitt’s disregard for the White House’s warnings to cabinet officials that they avoid even the appearance of impropriety. It also underscored the administrator’s tendency to play favorites among his staff, according to two sources with direct knowledge of agency dynamics. Hupp, in particular, is making more than her Obama-era predecessor, a five-year veteran of the agency who did not break six figures until the final year of the administration, according to public records. (While Greenwalt has no obvious peer in the Obama administration, the EPA’s general counsel had an annual salary of $155,500 in 2016.)

Said one EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press: “This whole thing has completely gutted any morale I had left to put up with this place.”

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. EPA responds to our report via spox: "The Administrator was not aware...."

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

NEW - EPA responds to our report via spox: “The Administrator was not aware that these personnel actions had not been submitted to the Presidential Personnel Office. So, the Administrator has directed that they be submitted to the Presidential Personnel Office for review.”

Link to tweet

Scoop: Scott Pruitt defied the White House to give tens of thousands of dollars in raises to two of his favorite aides. W/ @yayitsrob:

Link to tweet

[riversedge]

4. 2 Florida Republicans Now Joining Calls For Scott Pruitt To Resign

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/carlos-curbelo-scott-pruitt_us_5ac3b87be4b04646b6470a31

04/03/2018 01:33 pm ET Updated 44 minutes ago
2 Florida Republicans Now Joining Calls For Scott Pruitt To Resign

Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen say Pruitt should leave the agency amid growing controversy over his spending and ties to lobbyists.

By Alexander C. Kaufman and Igor Bobic



WASHINGTON ― Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) called for Scott Pruitt’s resignation Tuesday, becoming the first Republicans to demand the embattled Environmental Protection Agency administrator step down amid growing controversy over his spending and ties to lobbyists.

In a tweet, Curbelo said Pruitt’s “corruption scandals are an embarrassment,” and urged President Donald Trump to fire the nation’s top environmental regulator if he does not quit.

Ros-Lehtinen, who is retiring from Congress this year, echoed Curbelo.

“When scandals and distractions overtake a public servant’s ability to function effectively, another person should fill that role,” the congresswoman said in a statement provided to HuffPost.

Curbelo is one of the most vulnerable House Republicans running for re-election this cycle ― former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won his majority-Latino district by 16 points in the 2016 election ― and he has said he’d welcome Trump’s help ahead of the 2018 midterms. Curbelo is up just five points over likely Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, according to a survey the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released this week........................