bennett, liz tate
<div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Lawmakers are calling on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/scott-pruitt" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Scott Pruitt</a> to hand over information about a key agency appointee, citing her record as an energy industry lobbyist as recently as the first quarter of this year.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) <a href="https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-merkley-ask-how-epa-appointee-could-possibly-do-her-job-given-extensive-ethics-conflicts#_ftn4" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">sent a letter</a> to Pruitt on Tuesday, challenging his appointment of Elizabeth "Tate" Bennett as deputy associate administrator of <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/epa" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">EPA</a>'s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations. In that role, Bennett is the agency's primary point person and liaison with Congress and state governments.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">The senators cited <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">President Donald Trump's</a> executive order on ethics, writing: "Because of her activities as a registered federal lobbyist she cannot work on legislation, communicate with Congress, or coordinate and monitor regional, state and local responses to a wide-range of major issues faced by EPA."</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Bennett worked for two years as a lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which represents more than 900 customer-owned rural utilities. The association, whose members have been historically reliant on coal, has pushed heavily against emissions-cutting regulations, including the Clean Power Plan.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">The senators say that Bennett's appointment violates Trump's <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/executive-order-ethics-commitments-executive-branch-appointees" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">executive order on ethics</a>, which says appointees can't "participate in the specific issue area" for which they lobbied in the two years prior to their appointment. Trump issued the order during his second week in office, following up on his oft-repeated campaign pledge to "drain the swamp." Previous presidents had similar ethics orders.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">The EPA and Bennett's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">The letter points out that the association spent $5.3 million on lobbying during Bennett's tenure, and that she "specifically lobbied on a broad set of EPA matters, including EPA's Clean Power Plan and New Source Performance Standard, Clean Water Rule, ozone standard, EPA enforcement, pesticides bills, budget resolutions, and appropriations bills."</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Prior to her position at the rural utilities association, Bennett was an energy and agriculture aid to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">The appointment is the latest in a series of lobbying-related ethics problems facing Trump appointees. Critics of Pruitt have <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15012017/scott-pruitt-epa-chief-oklahoma-attorney-general-climate-denial" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">questioned his deep ties to fossil fuel companies, including his leadership</a> in the Koch brothers-funded Rule of Law Defense Fund, which lobbied heavily against environmental regulations. </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Late last month, the director of the Office of Government Ethics challenged the Trump administration's granting of waivers that exempt appointees from the president's ethics pledge. On April 28, Walter M. Shaub, Jr., who was appointed to head the office by President Barack Obama in 2013, <a href="https://www.oge.gov/web/OGE.nsf/All%20Advisories/5B5DECAECCE6CB8185258110007ADC76/%24FILE/PA-17-02.pdf?open" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">sent a request</a> asking every executive branch to provide him a copy of any waivers by June 1.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Whitehouse and Merkley are asking for information about Bennett by June 2, including any waivers she may have signed, a signed copy of her ethics pledge and her "Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report."</p></div></div></div></div><div class="tagged-with" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><label style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; color: rgb(125, 125, 125); font-size: 0.6875rem; line-height: 1.2;">PUBLISHED UNDER:</label><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); font-size: 0.6875rem;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">POLITICS</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/regulation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">REGULATION</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); font-size: 0.6875rem;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/epa" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">EPA</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/scott-pruitt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">SCOTT PRUITT</a></div> <div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">DONALD TRUMP</a></div></div></div></div>