The Daily 202: MLK’s final speech – delivered 50 years ago today – was full of timely and timeless teachings

The Daily 202: MLK’s final speech – delivered 50 years ago today – was full of timely and timeless teachings

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt answers questions last June from reporters at the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

PRUITT UNDER FIRE:

-- As EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was renting the condo linked to a lobbyist for an energy company, his agency approved the company’s pipeline project. The New York Times’s Eric Lipton reports: “Both the E.P.A. and the lobbying firm dispute that there was any connection between the agency’s action and the condo rental … Nevertheless, government ethics experts said that the correlation between the E.P.A.’s action and Mr. Pruitt’s lease arrangement ... illustrates why such ties to industry players can generate questions for public officials: Even if no specific favors were asked for or granted, it can create an appearance of a conflict.”

-- The apartment also served as a hub for GOP fundraising over the same time period Pruitt lived there. The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein and Lachlan Markay found at least three members of Congress held fundraisers at the brownstone: “Several of those fundraisers took place on dates when Pruitt was in Washington, D.C., according to a cross-reference of the invitations and Pruitt’s schedule. The EPA said that Pruitt wasn’t invited to and didn’t attend any of the events. And even if he were to have attended, ethics laws do not prohibit a cabinet secretary from going to a political event in his or her personal time.”

-- The White House is reviewing Pruitt’s housing arrangement. From the Wall Street Journal’s Peter Nicholas: “While there is no sign yet that Mr. Pruitt’s job is in jeopardy, another White House official said that few people are coming to Mr. Pruitt’s defense. Mr. Pruitt has alienated some colleagues by making known his desire to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general should Mr. Sessions step down or be fired by President Donald Trump, this person said. The purpose of the inquiry is to ‘dig a little deeper,’ the first official said, indicating that the White House isn’t satisfied with a statement from the EPA last week that the $50-a-night lease agreement didn’t violate federal ethics rules.”

-- The EPA considered leasing a private jet for Pruitt on a month-to-month basis last year to “accommodate his travel needs,” according to current and former officials. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis report: “[The officials] said the agency ultimately did not move forward with the plan because it would have been prohibitively expensive. Pruitt’s aides had contacted NetJets, a well-known firm that leases such planes, and received a cost estimate of roughly $100,000 a month[.] The idea was quickly scuttled after some top advisers objected …. Aides were discussing the arrangement before Tom Price resigned as [HHS secretary] amid revelations about costly flights he had taken aboard chartered planes. [The news comes as Pruitt] is facing a number of ethics questions in addition to scrutiny from lawmakers of both parties about the many first-class domestic and international flights he took.”

-- Pruitt bypassed the White House to secure raises of tens of thousands of dollars for two close aides. The Atlantic’s Elaina Plott and Robinson Meyer report: “The aides, Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, were part of the small group of staffers who had traveled with Pruitt to Washington from Oklahoma, where he had served as attorney general. … Pruitt asked that Greenwalt’s salary be raised 

from $107,435 to $164,200; Hupp’s, from $86,460 to $114,590. Because both women were political appointees, he needed the White House to sign-off on their new pay. … The White House, [one] source said, declined to approve the raises. So Pruitt found another way. A provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act allows the EPA administrator to hire up to 30 people into the agency, without White House or congressional approval. … By reappointing Greenwalt and Hupp under this authority, they learned, Pruitt could exercise total control over their contracts and grant the raises on his own.”

-- John Kelly has considered firing Pruitt in the coming months as part of a broader White House shake-up. Politico’s Eliana Johnson, Alex Guillén and Andrew Restuccia report: “Pruitt is still hanging on for now, in part because Kelly wanted to wait for an upcoming EPA inspector general’s report into his expensive travels … Multiple people close to the president still argue that Pruitt is one of Trump’s most effective Cabinet members in making policy, despite the steady drumbeat of headlines about his [spending habits].”

-- Meanwhile, the EPA formally announced a rollback of the Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. Juliet and Brady report: “The push to rewrite the first carbon limits on cars and SUVs, which came out of an agreement among federal officials, automakers and the state of California, is sure to spark major political and legal battles. California has authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own emissions limits, and it has threatened to sue if its waiver is revoked and it is blocked from imposing stricter targets. Such a fight has broad implications, because 12 other states, representing more than a third of the country’s auto market, follow California’s standards.”

-- Russian Twitter bots have backed Fox News host Laura Ingraham in her spat with Parkland student David Hogg. Amanda Erickson reports: “According to the website Hamilton 68, which tracks the spread of Russian propaganda on Twitter, the hashtag #IstandwithLaura jumped 2,800 percent in 48 hours this weekend. On Saturday night, it was the top trending hashtag among Russian campaigners. The website botcheck.me, which tracks 1,500 ‘political propaganda bots,’ found that @ingrahamangle, @davidhogg111 and @foxnews were among the top six Twitter handles tweeted by Russia-linked accounts this weekend. ‘David Hogg’ and ‘Laura Ingraham’ were the top two-word phrases being shared.”


TRUMP KILLING TOURISM!

-- Meanwhile, the number of U.S. visitor visas issued to foreigners has significantly dropped. Politico’s Nahal Toosi, Ted Hesson and Sarah Frostenson report: “By one measure, the U.S. granted 13 percent fewer visitor visas over the past 12 months when compared with fiscal year 2016, according to State Department data[,] … a downward trend that appears to have accelerated in the past six months. … People from Arab and Muslim-majority nations saw some of the steepest drops in visitor visas. That includes the handful targeted by the three successive iterations of Trump’s travel ban … But substantial drops were observed also in non-Muslim-majority countries.”


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