WASHINGTON – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said Wednesday that he didn’t recall asking that lights and sirens be used on his motorcade so he could get through Washington traffic faster.
“I don’t recall that happening,” Pruitt told Sen. Tom Udall ( D-N.M.), who pressed the EPA chief on an array of allegations, including that he had used lights and sirens to make his way more quickly to Le Diplomate, a trendy French restaurant in Washington where Pruitt likes to have dinner.
Pruitt was testifying before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday and mainly tussled with Udall, who announced early on that the EPA administrator was facing 16 separate investigations.
Udall wanted to know, generally, if Pruitt’s security detail had ever flashed its lights or used its sirens in a non-emergency situation.
What he received was a non-answer.
“There are policies in place that governs the use of lights,” Pruitt said. “Those policies were followed to the best of my knowledge.”
Udall pointed to reports, including one in the New York Times that said that Pruitt had encouraged the use of lights and sirens, even in non-emergency situations.
Pruitt again answered that the “policies were followed to the best of my knowledge” as he said he didn’t recall ordering the lights and sirens to be used.
The back-and-forth prompted Udall to announce that he was submitting for the record an email written by EPA aide Pasquale Perrotta that had the subject line “Lights and Sirens.”
“Btw – Administrator encourages the use …” Perrotta wrote to a number of EPA officials whose names were blacked out.
Perrotta left the EPA at the beginning of the month.
“I think he’s been caught in a lie,” Udall told reporters after the hearing.
Pruitt was pummeled by the Democrats on some of his other mini-scandals as well.
“What a silly reason you had to fly first class,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who made a brief appearance at the hearing. “Nobody even knew who you were.”
Pruitt has said he’s flown first class – instead of coach like most government employees – due to security concerns.
The EPA chief has also taken heat for a sweetheart rental apartment deal, but at Wednesday’s hearing that took a backseat to his use of a government aide for his real estate hunt.
“The individual that you’re referring to is a longtime friend of my wife and myself,” Pruitt said, explaining that Millan Hupp, a top scheduling aide, had searched for apartments for the EPA chief on her own time.
“All activity that I’m aware of that was engaged in by the individual that you’re speaking about occurred in personal time.”
Pruitt then told Udall that Hupp wasn’t paid for this work.
“Then that’s a gift,” Udall said. “That’s in violation of federal law.”