Senior EPA press official has a side job as an outside media consultant
Source: Washington Post
Energy and Environment
Senior EPA press official has a side job as an outside media consultant
by Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis March 5 at 4:57 PM
eilperinj@washpost.com; brady.dennis@washpost.com
Two senior Environmental Protection Agency political appointees including one who personally supervises every grant the agency awards to or solicits from outside groups got approval from the agencys ethics office to continue to collect outside income while working for the Trump administration.
Letters from the EPAs office of general counsel, which were released Monday by Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, show that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitts special assistant Patrick Davis and the deputy associate administrator for the office of public affairs, John Konkus, sought permission to work for private clients even as they occupied full-time federal jobs. ... Davis asked to work as the sales director of Telephone Town Hall Meeting, according to a Feb. 3 letter from Justina Fugh, the EPAs alternate designated agency ethics official, while the clients Konkus is consulting for were not made publicly available. Instead, Fughs Aug. 1 letter to Konkus states that he wanted to take on clients to advise about strategy, mail and media production: It mentions two likely clients, whose names are redacted, adding that he anticipated getting more clients in the next six months.
Both officials were instructed that their outside annual income could not exceed $27,765 and that they could not participate in any matter that will have a direct and predictable financial effect upon your outside employer or clients. ... Davis, who makes about $135,000 a year in his job as a senior adviser for public engagement to the regional administrator in the EPAs Denver office, also owns a Republican political consulting firm based in Colorado Springs. He was also given permission to solicit prospective clients in his spare time, provided that he did not use agency resources.
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Last year, The Washington Post reported that Konkus had started vetting the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants (1) that the EPA distributes each year, singling out awards that either highlighted climate change or supported priorities that he viewed as conflicting with those of the administration. Konkus canceled close to $2 million competitively awarded grants to universities and nonprofit organizations, though the EPA reversed course last week and restored $325,000 in funding to the Bay Journal, a print publication that covers Marylands Chesapeake Bay.
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Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books one on sharks and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other and has worked for The Post since 1998.
Follow @eilperin
Brady Dennis is a national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on the environment and public health issues.
Follow @brady_dennis
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(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/epa-now-requires-political-aides-sign-off-for-agency-awards-grant-applications/2017/09/04/2fd707a0-88fd-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/05/two-senior-epa-officials-got-to-collect-outside-income-while-working-for-trump-administration-records-show/
I don't see what all the fuss is about. You can't even buy a dining room table for $27,765.
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Two senior EPA officials got to collect outside income while working for Trump administration, records show
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