Top Pruitt aide resigns from EPA amid controversies
Source: the hill
By Miranda Green - 04/05/18 10:30 AM EDT
A top aide and close friend of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has issued her resignation in the midst of various scandals plaguing the agency chief.
Samantha Dravis, the senior counsel and associate administrator in EPA's Office of Policy, tendered her resignation last week, the agency confirmed to The Hill on Thursday.
The sudden departure is described by one source familiar with the EPA as a “five-alarm story.”
A friend close to Dravis suggested her decision to leave had been building.
"She has been looking to leave for a while. A lot of people in the administration wanted her to stay for the year to put her time in but it’s one drama after another. It’s a shit show," the source said.
Dravis has a long history with Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma.
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Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/381773-top-pruitt-aide-resigns-from-epa-amid-controversies
Pressure Mounts on Scott Pruitt, E.P.A. Chief, as Top Advisers Eye the Exit
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/climate/epa-chief-scott-pruitt-pressure.html
Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, with his top policy adviser, Samantha Dravis, at Trump Tower in 2016. Ms. Dravis is said to be resigning.CreditAndrew Harnik/Associated Press
By Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman
April 5, 2018
WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is under increased White House scrutiny over his housing and travel arrangements as some of his own senior staff are expressing growing frustration with the public criticism of their boss, according to four people, including an E.P.A. official, who have spoken with the staff members.
Mr. Pruitt has emerged as one of President Trump’s top lieutenants as well as a conservative hero for his aggressiveness in loosening or undoing dozens of environmental regulations while weakening many of the agency’s clean-air and water-enforcement programs. But the series of ethical questions is threatening his good standing with the president and driving away some senior staffers.
Samantha Dravis, Mr. Pruitt’s top policy adviser, has recently told him she is resigning, according to two E.P.A. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news has not been made public. And his chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, has grown frustrated enough with his boss that he has considered resigning, according to people in whom Mr. Jackson has confided.
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Both Ms. Dravis and Mr. Jackson are seasoned Washington insiders who have worked for years among the capital’s top conservative Republicans and industry lobbyists.
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