(WASHINGTON, DC) – American Oversight and the Environmental
Working Group have asked EPA's
inspector general to investigate the agency's $120,000 no-bid contract with a
firm tied to Pruitt to track news coverage of its activities. "The EPA's
decision to award a no-bid contract to a highly political organization with
close ties to the current EPA Administrator, particularly combined with the
fact that a related organization has been using the Freedom of Information Act
to investigate the agency's employees, raises numerous questions about how the
EPA is allocating its funds and whether it is complying with all government
contracting, legal, and ethical requirement," they wrote. An employee of
the group, Definers Public Affairs, has also filed dozens of public records
requests for information on employees who have been critical of the Trump
administration.
Meanwhile, Public
Citizen asked GAO to find
the contract was awarded improperly and recommend it be rescinded.
Won't
back down: One of EPA's top unions, the American Federation of Government
Employees Local 704, vowed not to be scared off by the tactics in a statement.
"None of us got into this work to be voices of dissent," Nicole
Cantello, an official with the union, said. "But in the face of grave
injustice and the dangerous actions of the Trump administration, we have a
moral obligation to speak out and do everything within the bounds of the law
that we can to fight back."
