EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has developed a list of places he wants to see before he has to pay for the trips himself, and he’s made it known that he's looking for a few good lobbyists who want to provide excuses for his around the world in pay-to-play tour.
After taking office last year, Pruitt drew up a list of at least a dozen countries he hoped to visit and urged aides to help him find official reasons to travel, according to four people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency deliberations. Pruitt then enlisted well-connected friends and political allies to help make the trips happen.
Pruitt went on a still unexplained trip to Morocco with the help of a foreign lobbyist. He planned a trip to Australia with another lobbyist. And the Washington Post reports that Pruitt was about to take a mystifying visit to Israel—one with a list of events that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his supposed job—when all those pesky scandals back home got in his way.
Scott Pruitt’s itinerary for a February trip to Israel was remarkable by any standard for an Environmental Protection Agency administrator: A stop at a controversial Jewish settlement in the West Bank. An appearance at Tel Aviv University. A hard-to-get audience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
And, of course, that trip, which was canceled at the last moment, was done at the behest of a Republican lobbyist, in this case casino owner Sheldon Adelson.
It’s safe to say there has never been anyone in a cabinet position like Scott Pruitt. Resting in the knowledge that he has Donald Trump’s support, and that Trump’s support means that House and Senate Republicans will defend Pruitt’s excesses even when they reach the limits of ludicrous, he’s free to do anything. He’s become a cabinet Caligula, rewarding his friends, indulging his every whim, and punishing anyone who speaks up to remind him that there are, or at least are supposed to be, laws. He hasn’t yet made a horse the deputy administrator of the EPA, but … give him time.
Pruitt’s scheduled trip in Morocco is full of blanks, so other than promoting natural gas at a meeting—which isn’t just not part of his job, but the opposite of his job—the rest of what he did on his multi-day visit is sill an unknown. His trip to Rome, at a taxpayer funded cost of $120,000, is a bit better known. Including the fact that Pruitt got a special, private tour of the Vatican.
And even if he didn’t get to take his Israel trip, it doesn’t mean he didn’t spend the public’s money making Republican donors happy.
And in Israel, Pruitt was scheduled to unveil an agreement with Water-Gen, an Israeli water purification company championed by Adelson. Adelson does not have a financial stake in Water-Gen, according to his aides and the company, but was impressed by its technology and had urged Pruitt to meet with Water-Gen executives soon after he took office. That meeting took place on March 29, 2017.
Within weeks, Pruitt instructed his aides to find a way to procure Water-Gen’s technology, according to two administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The EPA signed an agreement with the company in January; Pruitt had hoped to announce it while he was in Israel. Water-Gen is now working with EPA technical staff in Cincinnati to test its technology in hopes of obtaining a federal contract to provide drinking water in places where the water supply has been contaminated.
What’s missing from this agreement? Any sign that Pruitt conducted any sort of background check, comparison test, competitive bidding or … any of the other things that are supposed to guard against cabinet officials randomly handing out largess to friends and generally turning their offices into giant money-go-rounds where donors are rewarded by contracts and influence.
But of course, it doesn’t matter. Because Pruitt is lying openly and almost continually to Congress, forging resignations for those who oppose him, and leaking classified information with no concern about a chiding tweet from Trump.
Now. Who wants to send Scott Pruitt on a trip? There’s still room to get in on his sponsor list.
Along with Israel and Australia, Pruitt’s wish list for global travel included Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Panama, Poland, Japan, India and Canada, former staff members said, adding that Pruitt asked staffers to schedule the trips at a pace of roughly one per month. Political and career officials at the EPA suggested a handful of other destinations, these people said, including China and Germany.
The other trips may be doable, but Canada is a stretch. US and Canadian law enforcement share records, and it’s very hard for criminals to get across the border.