house committee here, this committee is supposed to be focusing on epa s budget and they will, they will touch on that topic because, of course, democrats have a gripe, a bone to pick with pruitt over the epa s budget for 2019. however, a large chunk of this, john, will surround the questions about his ethical issues, whether we re talking about that sweetheart deal for that condo where pruitt lived for a short time, it belonged to a lobbyist who was a friend, first class flights, 24/7 security as well as violating federal spending laws when he installed that $43,000 privacy booth within his office. he can expect tough questions from both sides. democrats and republicans, and we re really going to be paying close attention to the republicans tone as well as their question. this may be the first time that we re able to see on full display whether or not truly
accountability in our processes to ensure in each of these areas we get better results and show the american people that we are committed to being good stewards of taxpayer resources, staying true to our mission at the agency, which i believe we are and have, and i m committed to doing that. i yield back my time. i turn to the ranking member of the subcommittee for five minutes. thank you. recently it came out that two epa employees who came with you to washington from oklahoma were given significant raises over the white house s objection. when you were interviewed by ed henry on fox news, you claim to have been unaware of the raises. at the time he asked you whether you intentionally went around the white house or simply had no idea what your staff was up to. the epa inspector general is looking into those raises and last week the ig released preliminary information showing that the forms to grant the raises were signed by your chief of staff, mr. ryan jackson, who wrote he was s
bulk of the statutes that the epa implements and we decide where the agency s money can best be friend. help me understand your guiding principles for determining legitimate uses of federal money bit epa including whether using any kind of previous spending guidance to make these decision s. congressman, i believe as we re making decisions, we have guidelines at the agency to drive the decisions. some of them are triggered to the science part of our office. those guidelines govern our decisions each and every day. are they similar lines that are similar to your predecessors? yes. in what ways? they predated our time. from travel, to internal decision-making on allocation of dollars to program offices. these are predated policies that govern our actions every single day. let me ask you about the issue of science and
president s support because you re implementing his deregulatory agenda. i think that agenda has real cause. in october 2017, right before epa abandoned the rule-making drew wind, 31-year-old small business owner in south carolina died while usie ining methline chloride. were you or others at epa aware of drew wynn s death when the agency abandoned this chemical? i think it is important to know that we have a proposed ban in place that is being considered obviously you re not going to admit whether you knew about drew s death. unfortunately in february, another 31-year-old man, joshua atkins, died using a paint stripper to refinish his bike. i learned about joshua from his mother who sent me a deeply touching letter. i would ask unanimous consent to put that letter in the record in
ranking member of the subcommittee for five minutes. thank you, mr. chairman. i listened to your reasons why you haven t resign. and basically you said that you re staying because only you can carry out the president s mission. and i strongly disagree with that. i think oyour actions are an embarrassment to president trump. if i were the president, i wouldn t want your help. i would just get rid of you. i m not the president, so let me move on. it has been reported that you have even gone so far as to retaliate against epa s employees, punishing those who questioned your spending and management and sidelining those who attempted to advance important public health protections. i wanted to ask again, yes or no, because we don t have a lot of time, it has been reported that at least five epa employees were recently reassigned, demoted or otherwise retaliated against after they raised concerns about your spending.