{"id":846,"date":"2018-03-31T20:04:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T00:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=846"},"modified":"2018-03-31T20:04:52","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T00:04:52","slug":"scott-pruitt-e-p-a-chief-rented-residence-from-wife-of-energy-lobbyist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=846","title":{"rendered":"Scott Pruitt, E.P.A. Chief, Rented Residence From Wife of Energy Lobbyist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0BRAD PLUMER<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ERIC LIPTON<\/span><\/a><\/span>

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Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has been the subject of questions from the House Oversight Committee about his travel expenses.<\/span>\u00a0Credit<\/span>Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, rented a residence in Washington in 2017 that was partly owned by the wife of a top energy lobbyist whose firm, according to disclosure forms, conducted business before the E.P.A. that same year.<\/p>\n

While the agency said on Friday that the arrangement was consistent with federal ethics rules, the developments come as Mr. Pruitt is already under fire from Congress regarding unrelated ethics questions. In February, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee\u00a0ordered<\/a>\u00a0Mr. Pruitt to turn over documents related to his first-class travel at taxpayer expense, questioning whether he had received the appropriate waivers to do so.<\/p>\n

The housing arrangement surfaced on Thursday after ABC News\u00a0reported<\/a>that Mr. Pruitt had paid $50 per night to rent a bedroom in a condominium on Capitol Hill for the first half of 2017. The E.P.A. later\u00a0shared documents with Bloomberg News<\/a>\u00a0showing that the arrangement was not a traditional monthly rental agreement; instead Mr. Pruitt paid only for the nights that he slept in the room. His payments amounted to $6,100 over six months.<\/p>\n

A typical full studio or one-bedroom apartment in the same area would cost between $1,500 and $2,000 per month or much more, a search of current listings indicates. In a statement, Jahan Wilcox, an E.P.A. spokesman, referred to\u00a0a memo from the agency\u2019s designated ethics counsel<\/a>, dated Friday, saying that, \u201cUnder the terms of the lease, if the space was utilized for one 30-day month, then the rental cost would be $1,500, which is a reasonable market value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal ethics rules generally prohibit employees in the executive branch from receiving outside gifts. Mr. Wilcox said the memo showed that the housing arrangement \u201cwas not a gift and the lease was consistent with federal ethics regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Walter M. Shaub Jr., who\u00a0until last July<\/a>\u00a0was the director of the Office of Government Ethics, pointed out that\u00a0federal ethics guidelines<\/a>\u00a0say that \u201cemployees should consider declining gifts when they believe that their integrity or impartiality would be questioned if they were to accept the gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the E.P.A., the landlord of the building was Vicki Hart, the president and founder of a\u00a0health care lobbying firm<\/a>\u00a0that does not have business before the agency.<\/p>\n

Her husband,\u00a0J. Steven Hart<\/a>, is the chairman of a Washington lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen, with several energy clients including OGE Energy Corporation, Cheniere Energy and Colonial Pipeline.<\/p>\n

According to lobbying disclosure records, Mr. Hart\u2019s firm reported lobbying the E.P.A. on behalf of OGE Energy, an energy company based in Oklahoma, on greenhouse gas regulations and other rules affecting electric utilities. The forms were\u00a0previously reported<\/a>\u00a0by E&E News.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Pruitt paid $6,100 over six months to the wife of a top energy lobbyist for a bedroom in a Capitol Hill condominium.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Alex Wong\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Hart did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

E&E News reported that Mr. Hart said that he had not personally lobbied the E.P.A. in the past two years and was unaware that his firm had done so, and that a federal disclosure form listing him as having lobbied the E.P.A. on behalf of a glass-container manufacturer was an error that he would ask to have corrected.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Congress were quick to criticize the agency chief. \u201cFrom the very beginning, Scott Pruitt has acted as if the E.P.A. is his own personal fiefdom,\u201d Representative John Sarbanes, Democrat of Maryland, who sits on the House committee that oversees the agency, said in a statement.<\/p>\n