Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt was in the hot seat on Thursday morning, facing tense questions from Congress about a wave of ethics allegations tied to his spending, travel, and treatment of staff.

In recent weeks, Pruitt has faced increasing scrutiny for: a housing deal tied to an energy lobbyist; spending millions on first-class travel and security measures; and reportedly retaliating against staffers who spoke out against his spending. Pruitt’s actions are being investigated by government watchdogs, Congress, and the White House. In fact, last week, the Office of Government Accountability found the EPA violated two laws when it spent $43,000 on a secure phone booth for Pruitt without getting prior approval from Congress.

“I have nothing to hide,” Pruitt said in his opening remarks at a packed morning hearing by the House Committee on Energy and Committee’s subcommittee on environment. “I’m not afraid to admit it’s been a learning process,” he added.

House Democrats uniformly hammered President Donald Trump’s EPA chief about his ethics allegations.

“Administrator Pruitt has brought secrecy, conflicts of interest and scandal to the EPA. In any other administration, Republican or Democrat, you would be long gone by now,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat of New Jersey and the ranking member of the House committee. Pallone said he had requested for Pruitt’s testimony to be under oath at the hearing, but the request was declined by the committee chair.

Republicans were far more supportive of Pruitt, but some admitted that his ethics scandal was too big to ignore.

“We scheduled the hearing to focus on the EPA’ s policy and budget priorities,” said Rep. Greg Walden, a Republican from Oregon and chairman of the House energy committee. “But you surely understand that members of both sides of the aisle also have serious questions [about] the management and operations of the agency.”

Others took aim at the press and their Democratic colleagues for making personal attacks against the administrator.

“To the public, I think this has been a classic display of innuendo and McCarthyism that we are seeing too often here in Washington that unfortunately I think works against civility and respect for people in public office,” said Rep. McKinley, a Republican from West Virginia.

“I think it is shameful this hearing has turning into a personal attack hearing,” said Rep. Bill Johnson, a Republican of Ohio, “and a shameful attempt to denigrate the work that’s being done at the EPA and with this administration and make this a personal attack.”

In one especially tense exchange, Rep. Pallone questioned Pruitt about whether he was aware of a pair of aides getting big raises even after the White House didn’t approve them. Pruitt carefully toed the line, saying he was not aware of the amounts of the raises or about the process used to approve the raises.“I was not aware of the amount,” Pruitt said, adding “nor was I aware of the bypassing” or process not being respected. He later said he didn’t even know one of the staffers was seeking a salary increase. (According to a former EPA staffer,“I’m concerned you have no idea what is going on in your name at the agency,” Pallone responded.

This is a developing story.

Original source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/zahrahirji/epa-scott-pruitt-ethics-congress?utm_term=4ldqpia.