Top Pruitt aide at EPA also shopped for housing on his behalf
Source: Washington Post
Energy and Environment
Top Pruitt aide at EPA also shopped for housing on his behalf
By Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis April 3 at 12:02 PM
eilperinj@washpost.com; brady.dennis@washpost.com
This post has been updated.
A top aide at the Environmental Protection Agency, who recently received a 33 percent raise from Administrator Scott Pruitt despite a lack of approval from the White House, helped shop for housing options for him and his wife last year, according to several individuals with knowledge of the matter. ... Millan Hupp, 26, who serves as Pruitts director of scheduling and advance, contacted a local real estate firm last summer as the EPA chief was moving out of a $50-per-night rental condo owned by the wife of an energy and transportation lobbyist. Three individuals, including current and former EPA employees, said Hupp was the point person for Pruitts search. ... Between July and September, Hupp corresponded with a real estate company and on some evenings and weekends went to view properties for rent or sale, according to two of the individuals. She typically used her private email but at times contacted the company during work hours. At other times, Pruitt himself viewed properties, the individuals said.
This is not news, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement. The notion that government resources were used to assist in finding housing is categorically false. Administrator Pruitt and his wife looked at numerous housing options. ... But Don Fox, the former acting director and general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics, said in an interview that federal officials are barred from enlisting one of their subordinates to do personal tasks for them, even if those take place during off hours. ... Theres a general prohibition against misusing government resources, and employees are government resources, Fox said. Its clearly personal, and frankly, it doesnt matter if she did it 11 a.m. on a Tuesday or at 2 p.m. on a Saturday if, in fact, that was an expectation of the job.
Hupp, who previously helped run a pair of political fundraising committees on Pruitts behalf in Oklahoma, was one of two EPA employees who recently received significant raises, despite a lack of White House approval. Hupps salary jumped nearly 33 percent last month, from $86,460 to $114,590. ... After graduating in 2014 from Oklahoma State University, where she majored in hotel and restaurant administration, Hupp spent less than a year working at an Embassy Suites hotel near the Nashville airport as a business travel sales manager, according to her online rsum and LinkedIn page. In early 2015, according to her rsum, Hupp went to work for Pruitt as his deputy finance director, where her duties included hunting for new donors and a role as on-the-ground orchestrator of activity for the Attorney General during political travel.
....
Another EPA employee, 30-year-old Sarah Greenwalt, who serves as Pruitts senior counsel after working with him in Oklahoma, also received a sharp raise in recent weeks. Her salary jumped more than 52 percent, from $107,435 to $164,200. ... To hand out such raises, Pruitt used an obscure provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act after the White House refused to boost the two womens pay, according to two people with firsthand knowledge of the matter. ... According to these individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, Pruitt reappointed both staff members under the authority of the act. That law allows the EPA chief to hire up to 30 people without presidential or congressional approval, which gave Pruitt the ability to set their salary levels himself.
....
Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books one on sharks and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other and has worked for The Post since 1998. Follow @eilperin
https://twitter.com/eilperin
Brady Dennis is a national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on the environment and public health issues. He previously spent years covering the nations economy. Dennis was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for a series of explanatory stories about the global financial crisis. Follow @brady_dennis
https://twitter.com/brady_dennis
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/03/epas-pruitt-gave-big-raises-to-two-close-aides-after-being-rebuffed-by-the-white-house/
Sorry; access blocked. Let me try.... Got it.
Nice try, failin' WaPo, but Google News was my friend.
- - - - - - - - -
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
SCOOP, w/ @brady_dennis One of Pruitt's top aides who just got a major salary boost served as point person for his housing search last year
Link to tweet
- - - - - - - - -
Maybe not a scoop:
EPA’s Pruitt gave big raises to two close aides after being rebuffed by the White House. Some more details from @eilperin and I on the news first reported by @TheAtlantic this morning:
Link to tweet
Retweeted by The Atlantic: https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic
This is a potential abuse of hiring authority by the head of the EPA. Misusing a provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Great work reporting @yayitsrob and @elainaplott https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/pruitt-epa/557123/ …
Link to tweet
= new reply since forum marked as read
