Executive Departments Part 2

[GreyhoundFan]

From the editorial board of the WaPo: "Enough. Send this swamp monster packing."

Spoiler

EVEN AT the time, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s trip to Morocco last December seemed odd. Between visiting solar installations and meeting with phosphate industry officials, the United States’ top environmental officer spent a substantial amount of time trying to sell American natural gas, a fossil fuel, to the Moroccans. Meanwhile, his business-class tickets, luxury hotel accommodations and round-the-clock security detail seemed like overkill for a not particularly productive trip.

Now, following new details revealed by The Post’s Kevin Sullivan, Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, Mr. Pruitt’s December jaunt seems even sketchier. Portions of it were arranged by a former Comcast lobbyist who had become close to the administrator — and who shortly thereafter registered as an agent for the Moroccan government, promoting the kingdom in return for a whopping $40,000 a month. That lobbyist, Richard Smotkin, even accompanied Mr. Pruitt on some of his activities. It appears that either Mr. Pruitt knew that Mr. Smotkin might profit from the official trip he was taking, which an EPA spokesman denies, or he got played. Either way, these details illustrate an untoward coziness with lobbyists that had already made Mr. Pruitt the subject of multiple federal investigations.

The trip’s particulars also underscore Mr. Pruitt’s habit of wasting taxpayer money on private indulgences. His airline tickets — on Delta Air Lines, the carrier he regularly insisted on flying — cost $16,217. He stayed in luxury hotels in Paris and Morocco. He brought eight staffers and 24-hour security. The total cost came out to some $100,000, even though Mr. Pruitt appears not to have come close to accomplishing $100,000 worth of work in his brief visit.

In another costly foreign voyage to Italy, the New York Times reported Tuesday, parts of Mr. Pruitt’s schedule were arranged by another outside figure, conservative legal activist Leonard A. Leo. Mr. Leo even rode in the administrator’s motorcade despite the objections of EPA staff. One former agency official told the Times that when Mr. Leo or Mr. Smotkin called with a request, “we did it, it doesn’t matter what it was.”

Meanwhile, the Times also revealed Tuesday that the lobbyist whose wife rented Mr. Pruitt a room in a Capitol Hill condominium on generous terms had asked the administrator for help placing three people on the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. The request came the month after Mr. Pruitt moved out of the condo, when the administrator still owed money to the lobbyist’s wife. Both Mr. Pruitt and J. Steven Hart, the lobbyist, had previously played down the suggestion that Mr. Hart sought any special treatment from the EPA, denials that have become steadily less credible.

Mr. Pruitt has crammed a lifetime’s worth of ethical failings into less than a year and a half in office. How much longer will President Trump continue to tolerate this swamp creature in his administration?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Pruitt reimbursed himself $65,000 from Oklahoma attorney general campaign"

Spoiler

(CNN)A CNN analysis has found that embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt paid himself nearly $65,000 in reimbursements from his two campaigns for Oklahoma attorney general, a move at least one election watchdog has sharply criticized as being recorded so vaguely that there was no way to tell if such payments were lawful.

The reimbursement method, which Pruitt used in his 2010 and 2014 campaigns, effectively scuttled two key pillars of campaign finance: transparency about how campaign funds are spent and ensuring campaign funds are not used for personal purchases, according to a former top elections attorney and a CNN review of the documents.

Some of the reporting may also violate Oklahoma campaign finance rules, according to research done by the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit and nonpartisan group.

At EPA, Pruitt is under scrutiny for questionable spending and ethical decisions that have landed him in hot water with investigators and on Capitol Hill. Ethics watchdogs, federal auditors and congressional committees are conducting nearly a dozen inquiries into Pruitt's actions at the agency.

During his attorney general bids, records show Pruitt made purchases and then received reimbursement from his campaign -- sometimes thousands of dollars apiece -- rather than having the campaign pay directly for expenses like renting a vehicle or purchasing a meal. When purchases are made directly, the campaign filings would show more details about who received the payments.

Instead, dozens of entries on Pruitt's 2010 and 2014 campaign finance filings show payments to him but don't have the same level of detail, making it difficult to tell if the purchases were legitimate.

The reimbursements are vaguely stated as being for meals, travel, office supplies, phone service, internet access and office decorations, and in some cases do not list the the vendors.

A spokesman for Pruitt, Jahan Wilcox, described the payments to CNN as "standard reimbursements."

"This is useless reporting," said Larry Noble, the former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission. He is now at the Campaign Legal Center and is a CNN contributor. "There's no way of telling if this is a personal expense. ... You couldn't do this on the federal (level) -- it's illegal."

Noble said Oklahoma rules require campaigns to "show the ultimate vendor and an adequate description so you know what the item was for." Because some of the payments to Pruitt do not do that, "It was not at all clear that these were all lawful," Noble said.

Noble noted that the campaigns, however, still made direct payments of more than $1.6 million.

"So he's not running the campaign through his credit card," Noble said.

All of the payments were made when Pruitt was a candidate for attorney general or after he had been first elected to the office in 2010. The records do not show any payments since Pruitt became administrator of the EPA last year.

As EPA chief, Pruitt has faced allegations he took advantage of increased security and made travel arrangements for his own benefit -- demanding to fly Delta in order to get frequent-flyer points and staying at posh hotels more expensive than government limits for reimbursement (which also placed an undue burden on his staff who have to pay out of pocket). He's also been accused of excessive spending on his office, like an ornate restored desk and a soundproof booth. In some cases, he blamed the expenditures on his staff.

The reimbursements to Pruitt when he was AG totaled $29,204.87 from the 2010 campaign account and $35,665.73 from his 2014 re-election account, according to the filings.

The filings show Pruitt was frequently reimbursed for dining expenses at The Beacon Club, which was described by a local newspaper as "Oklahoma City's oldest private downtown dining" establishment when it closed last year. "The Beacon Club was where deals got done," The Oklahoman newspaper reported.

Some of Pruitt's reimbursements were for "officeholder expenses" -- meaning items needed for his role as attorney general -- after he was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.

More than $5,000 is for items that appear to be office supplies and decorations. Around $3,600 is described as "Artwork/Decorations" from retailers like Pier 1 Imports, an Oklahoma florist and a local picture framing shop. Records also show Pruitt purchased a $1,400 Apple computer.

Because of the limited information and lack of transparency, it's impossible to determine whether the purchases were appropriate and for official purposes, Noble said.

"Do we know how the campaign spent its money? No," Noble said. "How do you enforce a personal use prohibition unless you know how the money is being used? ... This is not any way you want to have a campaign finance log."

The office purchases were made a mere 10 days after the Bank of America skyscraper in downtown Tulsa agreed to lease office space to the attorney general's office, headed by Pruitt. The move expanded the Tulsa AG's offices and placed them in the same building as Pruitt's campaign offices, raising the rent from about $3,000 per month to $12,000 per month.

The office of current Attorney General Mike Hunter told CNN that around the same time, the AG's office was required to expand and hire more staff.

One Republican source said Pruitt would sometimes leave the AG's office to work from the campaign office in the same building.

His move to Tulsa was seen publicly as a convenience, since he lived in Tulsa and not Oklahoma City, where the AG is headquartered.

Wilcox, the Pruitt spokesman, did not address detailed questions from CNN about the expenditures and decision to relocate his government offices to the same building as his campaign office.

This week, Democratic lawmakers requested more information about a similar request Pruitt made of the EPA. A letter from three members of the House alleged that Pruitt, through his chief of staff, asked the agency to find a secure facility in Tulsa, where Pruitt lives when not in Washington, where he could work and make phone calls. The EPA says that didn't end up happening.

He wouldn't know honesty if it bit him in the ass.

[AmazonGrace]

Swamp monster bites another: 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Another day, another Scotty headline.

Spoiler

Scott Pruitt’s itinerary for a February trip to Israel was remarkable by any standard for an Environmental Protection Agency administrator: A stop at a controversial Jewish settlement in the West Bank. An appearance at Tel Aviv University. A hard-to-get audience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One force behind Pruitt’s eclectic agenda: casino magnate and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, a major supporter of Israel who arranged parts of Pruitt’s visit.

The Israel trip was canceled days before Pruitt’s planned departure, after The Washington Post revealed his penchant for first-class travel on the taxpayers’ dime. But federal documents obtained by The Post and interviews with individuals familiar with the trip reveal that it fit a pattern by Pruitt of planning foreign travel with significant help from outside interests, including lobbyists, Republican donors and conservative activists.

After taking office last year, Pruitt drew up a list of at least a dozen countries he hoped to visit and urged aides to help him find official reasons to travel, according to four people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency deliberations. Pruitt then enlisted well-connected friends and political allies to help make the trips happen.

Longtime Pruitt friend Richard Smotkin, for example, helped arrange Pruitt’s four-day visit to Morocco in December. Smotkin, who has not returned calls seeking comment, later signed a $40,000-a-month lobbying contract with the Moroccan government.

American Australian Council treasurer Matthew Freedman, whose group’s members include ConocoPhillips, helped line up a September trip to Australia, where Pruitt was scheduled to promote liquefied natural gas exports during a tour of the company’s natural gas facility. That trip also was canceled. Freedman did not respond to calls seeking comment; the council said it “authorized” Freedman to “have discussions” with the EPA about the trip.

And in Israel, Pruitt was scheduled to unveil an agreement with Water-Gen, an Israeli water purification company championed by Adelson. Adelson does not have a financial stake in Water-Gen, according to his aides and the company, but was impressed by its technology and had urged Pruitt to meet with Water-Gen executives soon after he took office. That meeting took place on March 29, 2017.

Within weeks, Pruitt instructed his aides to find a way to procure Water-Gen’s technology, according to two administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The EPA signed an agreement with the company in January; Pruitt had hoped to announce it while he was in Israel. Water-Gen is now working with EPA technical staff in Cincinnati to test its technology in hopes of obtaining a federal contract to provide drinking water in places where the water supply has been contaminated.

On Thursday, Adelson’s top political adviser, Andy Abboud, confirmed his involvement in planning Pruitt’s Israel agenda, but played down its significance, saying, “Many people consult” Adelson before making the journey.

“In some cases, we will make an introduction to various officials traveling to Israel and Israeli staff officials,” Abboud said. Of the planned Pruitt trip, he said: “It was very perfunctory, and I would describe them as simple introductions.”

In an email, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said agency officials in the Office of International and Tribal Affairs “organized and led the effort around Administrator Pruitt’s” trip to Israel, as well as planned journeys to Italy, Morocco, Mexico and Australia. Wilcox declined to answer questions about Adelson’s role, Water-Gen or other travel-related matters.

Pruitt’s practice of involving outsiders in his travels raises serious ethical concerns, legal experts said; federal law prohibits public officials from using their office to enrich themselves or any private individual, or to offer endorsements.

Late Thursday, Democratic Sens. Thomas R. Carper (Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) wrote to Pruitt seeking more information about the Israel trip, the agency’s agreement with Water-Gen and “the role Mr. Adelson or other non-governmental officials played.”

Along with Israel and Australia, Pruitt’s wish list for global travel included Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Panama, Poland, Japan, India and Canada, former staff members said, adding that Pruitt asked staffers to schedule the trips at a pace of roughly one per month. Political and career officials at the EPA suggested a handful of other destinations, these people said, including China and Germany.

So far, Pruitt has traveled only to Italy and Morocco. He has canceled trips to Australia, Japan and Israel after extensive advance work by EPA officials.

In Italy and Morocco, Pruitt granted his friends unusual access to official events. In Italy, for example, Pruitt met up in Rome with Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society.

Leo, who is Catholic, personally arranged private events for Pruitt and his aides, including a private tour of the Vatican Library and the Apostolic Palace, according to a participant in the trip. When Pruitt left a private Vatican Mass for a discussion of environmental policy with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, he invited Leo to join the meeting, according to two participants on the Italy trip.

Leo declined Thursday to comment.

In Morocco, Smotkin joined Pruitt’s entourage on multiple stops, including a meeting with one of the kingdom’s most prominent business leaders, according to three individuals familiar with the trip.

Legal experts said that it is highly unusual for private citizens to participate in official meetings when Cabinet members travel overseas, and that such invitations could be construed as tacit endorsements of a group’s agenda. Federal ethics rules prohibit public officials from endorsing “any product, service or enterprise,” said Don Fox, a former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics.

“This is the problem with Pruitt,” said Virginia Canter, executive branch ethics counsel for the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “He’s basically acting as a lobbyist for all of his friends.”

From his first days at the EPA, Pruitt made clear to top aides that Israel was high on his agenda. Pruitt had met Adelson while serving as Oklahoma attorney general, and he agreed when Adelson suggested he meet with executives from Water-Gen.

Yehuda Kaploun, president of Water-Gen USA, said Thursday that Adelson became an enthusiastic backer after learning about the company’s innovative method of drawing potable water from moisture in the air.

While Adelson had no investments or other financial involvement in the company, Kaploun said, he asked executives “whether we’d be prepared to meet with EPA.”

On March 29, 2017, Kaploun and the parent company’s executive chairman, Maxim Pasik, met with Pruitt in his office in Washington. The entry in Pruitt’s official calendar, released under a public records request, includes a note that reads: “This came as a request of Sheldon Adelson.”

Water-Gen executives brought along one of the company’s “home and office” units, which can produce three to five gallons of water a day, and removed it from Pruitt’s office about a week later. During the meeting, Kaploun said, Pruitt asked company executives to meet with EPA water experts, inquired how quickly they could scale up and wanted to know whether they intended to manufacture in the United States.

“The administrator’s goal, which he stated at the meeting, is that this can help people. It can give people clean air and water,” Kaploun said, adding that Pruitt mentioned the Flint, Mich., drinking-water crisis as one potential use.

Pasik had a follow-up meeting with Pruitt in May, according to Pruitt’s calendar, and a few months later, the EPA announced that it was seeking up to four private-sector partners “for a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to investigate the potential use of atmospheric water generators.”

Such agreements often involve multiple firms. In this case, the EPA has so far cemented an agreement only with Water-Gen, in January. It was scheduled to be unveiled in February, during Pruitt’s trip to Israel.

Many of the planned stops on that trip were the sort any EPA administrator would undertake, according to Pruitt’s itinerary. For example, he was scheduled to meet with ministers of environmental protection and energy, visit a wastewater facility in Jerusalem and stop at one of the world’s largest desalination plants.

Other proposed stops were less clearly related to his mission, such as excursions to the City of David and the Galilee region, where Jesus once preached. Just before Pruitt was scheduled to depart, an Adelson associate met Pruitt aides Millan Hupp and Sarah Greenwalt in Israel to hammer out details of some of those events, according to a person familiar with those meetings.

Although the trip was canceled, EPA testing of Water-Gen’s technology continues. Federal officials said a second company, AquaSciences, could soon be added to the agreement.

Kaploun said that Water-Gen “followed total protocol” in seeking EPA approval and that as far as he knew, no other firms had initially applied.

“Our technology is so advanced that no one else is in the same realm,” he said, adding that Water-Gen had shouldered the cost of delivering one of its units to the EPA lab.

Kaploun and Water-Gen’s U.S. CEO, Edward Russo — a former environmental consultant to Donald Trump who authored a book titled “Donald J. Trump: An Environmental Hero” — visited the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in March. They briefed Trump about the technology, and the president invited them to the Oval Office for a demonstration, Kaploun said.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

The life expectancy was lower though because the healer couldn't really do shit about most diseases.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

10 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Nah, the evil elf was just clarifying that Melania's policies only apply to the "right" kids -- white, Christian kids who were born in the U.S. to legally married parents. Any other kids don't count to this administration. I'm so sick and tired of this sham administration.

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

Just when you think the republicans can't sink any lower or be any more evil, they  seem to say "hold my beer" and pull this shit.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s tweets distract us from the biggest scandal of all"

Spoiler

Scandal is the hallmark of the Trump administration, which increasingly seems to be rotting, like the proverbial fish, from the head down. President Trump himself daily serves up everything from the salacious to the ominous. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blows $12,000 to charter a private plane to fly from Las Vegas to Montana. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin takes a military plane to Kentucky and watches the solar eclipse. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, whose resignation should have been accepted months ago, is a standing punch line, blowing $43,000 for a private phone booth, flying first-class, handing out raises to cronies, exiling those who question him, all the while proclaiming his virtue. The media feeds on this. Not surprisingly, Democrats are talking about resuscitating their “culture of corruption” campaign theme from 2006.

The spectacle is appalling but focusing on it is mistaken. Just as Trump’s daily tweet rages obscure the real menace he poses, the unending stream of scandals involving Trump appointees diverts attention from the truly pernicious corruption of the administration. At a time when big money pervades our politics, this is the ultimate “pay for play” administration. What it has actually gotten done — primarily deregulation and tax cuts — benefits the few at the expense of the many, particularly the dispossessed and distressed whom Trump claims to champion.

The true scandal of Pruitt, for example, isn’t his sordid personal grotesqueries. It is, as actor and environmentalist Robert Redford pointed out, his utter contempt for the mission of the EPA, instead turning it from an agency dedicated to protecting our air, water and health into one serving the interests and profits of Big Oil and other industries.

Pruitt’s top deputy in the EPA toxic chemical unit, Nancy B. Beck, is a former executive of the American Chemistry Council. She has spearheaded a process that is reversing or weakening regulation on toxic chemicals such as the pesticide chlorpyrifos, essentially condemning more American children to unnecessary brain damage. Dow Chemical, which makes chlorpyrifos, contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural festivities. And now, big donors like the Koch brothers celebrate the regulatory rollbacks they have been able to achieve, such as a hold on safeguards that limit the amount of mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals.

Or consider that Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, donated $300,000 personally to Trump’s inaugural; the company chipped in $1 million to Trump’s super PAC. Murray’s lead lobbyist — Andrew Wheeler — is now Pruitt’s deputy. If Pruitt’s risible peculation finally brings him down, Wheeler is likely to take his place. The rollback of basic environmental protections will continue; the denial of climate change remains unshaken.

Trump set out to push what he called an historic effort for deregulation, appointing lobbyists and revolving-door industry officials to lead his “regulatory reform task forces.” There is no shame. As ProPublica reported: “At least 187 Trump political appointees have been federal lobbyists, and . . . many are now overseeing the industries they once lobbied on behalf of. We’ve also discovered ethics waivers that allow Trump staffers to work on subjects in which they have financial conflicts of interest.”

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, whom Trump named to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, raised eyebrows for telling a group of bankers and lobbyists that money talks, as if they needed to hear that. As a congressman, he said, he refused to meet with lobbyists unless they had contributed to his congressional campaigns. He offered this advice while mobilizing them to support his efforts to disembowel the CFPB, which since its inception in 2011 has recovered more than $12 billion for 29 million consumers who had been fleeced in credit-card or other financial scams. Upon being named head of the CFPB, he put a halt on hiring, stopped collecting fines, suspended rulemaking and ordered all active investigations reviewed. He canceled an investigation to a South Carolina payday lender that had previously donated to his congressional campaigns, and moved to suspend or weaken regulations of payday lenders, auto lenders and others preying on consumers.

This pattern repeats itself throughout the administration — most notably, in what Trump and Republicans consider their major accomplishment: the notorious tax deal. As Republicans admitted openly, they had to pass it or their donors would not answer their phone calls. Not surprisingly, the richest 1 percent will end up with some 83 percent of the benefit. And instead of a surge in investment, companies have largely used their tax breaks — as was predictable and predicted — for stock buybacks that benefit investors and CEOs with their stock options.

Trump, of course, campaigned on promises to “drain the swamp” in Washington. But the promise was a classic bait-and-switch. Trump views “the swamp” not as the entrenched interests and big money that have cleaned up by rigging the rules; he views the swamp as the public servants who labor to enforce the laws, helping to protect workers, consumers and the environment. “We have begun a historic program to reduce the regulations that are crushing our economy — crushing,” Trump said. “We’re going to put the regulations industry out of work and out of business.” When Stephen K. Bannon boasted about dismantling the administrative state, he was simply advertising to the predators that Trump would take the cops off the corporate beat. As Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (Ariz.), the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, summarized: “This isn’t about increasing taxpayer returns, it’s about looting public resources, opening up more of everything for drilling, charging the industry less and pretending it’s all coming from outside experts.”

The serial scandals of top administration officials are villainous. But the deeper corruption of this administration is in plain sight. Trump and his aides are traducing a government and civil service already compromised by big money and entrenched interests. And the damage they are doing to everyday Americans is far more costly than the millions they make off with for themselves.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Trump’s tweets distract us from the biggest scandal of all"

  Hide contents

Scandal is the hallmark of the Trump administration, which increasingly seems to be rotting, like the proverbial fish, from the head down. President Trump himself daily serves up everything from the salacious to the ominous. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blows $12,000 to charter a private plane to fly from Las Vegas to Montana. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin takes a military plane to Kentucky and watches the solar eclipse. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, whose resignation should have been accepted months ago, is a standing punch line, blowing $43,000 for a private phone booth, flying first-class, handing out raises to cronies, exiling those who question him, all the while proclaiming his virtue. The media feeds on this. Not surprisingly, Democrats are talking about resuscitating their “culture of corruption” campaign theme from 2006.

The spectacle is appalling but focusing on it is mistaken. Just as Trump’s daily tweet rages obscure the real menace he poses, the unending stream of scandals involving Trump appointees diverts attention from the truly pernicious corruption of the administration. At a time when big money pervades our politics, this is the ultimate “pay for play” administration. What it has actually gotten done — primarily deregulation and tax cuts — benefits the few at the expense of the many, particularly the dispossessed and distressed whom Trump claims to champion.

The true scandal of Pruitt, for example, isn’t his sordid personal grotesqueries. It is, as actor and environmentalist Robert Redford pointed out, his utter contempt for the mission of the EPA, instead turning it from an agency dedicated to protecting our air, water and health into one serving the interests and profits of Big Oil and other industries.

Pruitt’s top deputy in the EPA toxic chemical unit, Nancy B. Beck, is a former executive of the American Chemistry Council. She has spearheaded a process that is reversing or weakening regulation on toxic chemicals such as the pesticide chlorpyrifos, essentially condemning more American children to unnecessary brain damage. Dow Chemical, which makes chlorpyrifos, contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural festivities. And now, big donors like the Koch brothers celebrate the regulatory rollbacks they have been able to achieve, such as a hold on safeguards that limit the amount of mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals.

Or consider that Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, donated $300,000 personally to Trump’s inaugural; the company chipped in $1 million to Trump’s super PAC. Murray’s lead lobbyist — Andrew Wheeler — is now Pruitt’s deputy. If Pruitt’s risible peculation finally brings him down, Wheeler is likely to take his place. The rollback of basic environmental protections will continue; the denial of climate change remains unshaken.

Trump set out to push what he called an historic effort for deregulation, appointing lobbyists and revolving-door industry officials to lead his “regulatory reform task forces.” There is no shame. As ProPublica reported: “At least 187 Trump political appointees have been federal lobbyists, and . . . many are now overseeing the industries they once lobbied on behalf of. We’ve also discovered ethics waivers that allow Trump staffers to work on subjects in which they have financial conflicts of interest.”

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, whom Trump named to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, raised eyebrows for telling a group of bankers and lobbyists that money talks, as if they needed to hear that. As a congressman, he said, he refused to meet with lobbyists unless they had contributed to his congressional campaigns. He offered this advice while mobilizing them to support his efforts to disembowel the CFPB, which since its inception in 2011 has recovered more than $12 billion for 29 million consumers who had been fleeced in credit-card or other financial scams. Upon being named head of the CFPB, he put a halt on hiring, stopped collecting fines, suspended rulemaking and ordered all active investigations reviewed. He canceled an investigation to a South Carolina payday lender that had previously donated to his congressional campaigns, and moved to suspend or weaken regulations of payday lenders, auto lenders and others preying on consumers.

This pattern repeats itself throughout the administration — most notably, in what Trump and Republicans consider their major accomplishment: the notorious tax deal. As Republicans admitted openly, they had to pass it or their donors would not answer their phone calls. Not surprisingly, the richest 1 percent will end up with some 83 percent of the benefit. And instead of a surge in investment, companies have largely used their tax breaks — as was predictable and predicted — for stock buybacks that benefit investors and CEOs with their stock options.

Trump, of course, campaigned on promises to “drain the swamp” in Washington. But the promise was a classic bait-and-switch. Trump views “the swamp” not as the entrenched interests and big money that have cleaned up by rigging the rules; he views the swamp as the public servants who labor to enforce the laws, helping to protect workers, consumers and the environment. “We have begun a historic program to reduce the regulations that are crushing our economy — crushing,” Trump said. “We’re going to put the regulations industry out of work and out of business.” When Stephen K. Bannon boasted about dismantling the administrative state, he was simply advertising to the predators that Trump would take the cops off the corporate beat. As Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (Ariz.), the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, summarized: “This isn’t about increasing taxpayer returns, it’s about looting public resources, opening up more of everything for drilling, charging the industry less and pretending it’s all coming from outside experts.”

The serial scandals of top administration officials are villainous. But the deeper corruption of this administration is in plain sight. Trump and his aides are traducing a government and civil service already compromised by big money and entrenched interests. And the damage they are doing to everyday Americans is far more costly than the millions they make off with for themselves.

 

This makes me so mad that I wanted to give the 'angry' upvote. Sadly, the angry face is a downvote, so I had to go with wtf. 

This administration has one goal, and one goal only: to make the rich richer in any which way shape or form they can. This is pay-for-play politics at its finest. Or worst, depending on how you look at it.

Oh, corruption is rife in Washington DC
I'm rubbing my hands with joyful glee
C'mon GOP, bend over backwards for me

If you will do exactly as I say
I have lots of bucks I'm willing to pay
and I will give you more, just to have my way

I will pour millions into this super PAC
for each and every political hack
who will do anything to have my back

Yeah, corruption is rife in Washington DC
It's out in the open for all to see
Here are some bucks, now go play for me!

[onekidanddone]

7 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Oh shut up Paul Lame Duck Ryan. Well maybe not, it might be fun to watch Trump angry Tweet Nunes.

[GreyhoundFan]

"How Pruitt’s Aides Work to Shield the Boss: Seven Quotes"

Spoiler

WASHINGTON — The New York Times was given a cache of E.P.A. emails and other documents detailing the communications of top political aides to Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief, after the Sierra Club, an environmental group, sued to obtain the correspondence.

More than 10,000 pages from two aides who handled Mr. Pruitt’s daily schedule offer a detailed window into the extraordinary efforts by his team to keep the public and news media at a distance. Here are some examples.

‘We cannot do open q&a from the crowd’

When Mr. Pruitt was scheduled in December to appear with an Iowa cattle rancher, aides at the E.P.A. intervened to make sure that the administrator would not face unfriendly or unexpected questions from the crowd or uninvited reporters. “It’s invite only press I thought?” one aide to Mr. Pruitt wrote. “My sincere apologies for causing any difficulty but we cannot do open q&a from the crowd,” a second aide wrote.

‘Cat’s out of the bag’

Planning for a trip to Missouri hit a bump last April when word leaked about Mr. Pruitt meeting with electric utility executives even though organizers had tried to keep the talks secret. “Cat’s out of the bag,” one of the organizers wrote.

A plan had already been devised to scrub social media about the visit. “Comments that are derogatory and/or abusive will be hidden from public view,” a public relations consultant wrote. “Commenter receives no notification this hiding has happened.”

‘Le Diplomate is his favorite!’

Mr. Pruitt frequently met with energy industry lobbyists at hotels and restaurants. In one message, an aide revealed that Mr. Pruitt had a particular fondness for Le Diplomate, a French bistro in Washington where the administrator was often seen last year.

“Le Diplomate is his favorite!” one of Mr. Pruitt’s aides wrote for the planned dinner with a lobbyist, Michael McKenna, who has represented Koch Industries, the industrial conglomerate owned by the billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch; as well as Southern Co., an electric utility; and Dow Chemical Co.

But there was a problem. “Le Diplomate is booked so let me see what other options we have. Michael, any Suggestions?” “Central. Rural Society. Rosa Mexicano if Mexican is a good answer. Cava on 8th Street, SE. The Hamilton. Woodward Table,” Mr. McKenna wrote back, referring to other popular spots in Washington.

‘We won’t reply until the visit is over’

A visit to a Toyota car manufacturing plant in Texas by Mr. Pruitt came with an upfront demand by the E.P.A.: “We’d ask you keep this a private event, closed to press.” As the August event was getting underway, a CBS News reporter heard about it. “We just received an inquiry from a CBS News reporter in Dallas about the visit” the Toyota executive told the E.P.A. “We won’t reply until the visit is over.”

‘But please do ensure that they refer to him as the Honorable’

In another instance not previously made public, Richard Smotkin, a longtime supporter of Mr. Pruitt’s who was a Comcast lobbyist at the time, invited Mr. Pruitt to a fund-raiser for a nonprofit group that he helps run, the American Council of Young Political Leaders, which offers foreign-exchange programs for emerging political leaders.

At the event, Mr. Pruitt was to be presented with an award in the form of a globe engraved with his name. Some agency ethics officials raised questions about the appropriateness of receiving an award at a fund-raising event.

Officials ultimately came up with a creative solution.

“Here is the feedback I received:Yes, the Administrator may attend the event, and yes, he may receive the globe,” an email from an aide to Mr. Pruitt, Sydney Hupp, said. “But please do ensure that they refer to him as the Honorable (as opposed to the EPA Administrator).”

‘Closed — No press at meeting’

The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla., was the venue for a gathering in April 2017 of the National Mining Association, where Mr. Pruitt was invited to a “Closed — No press at meeting” event with “C.E.O.s from the major coal, metal and minerals, as well as manufacturers of mining equipment,” companies, the documents show.

‘The Administrator will be in Italy next week!’

The emails include detailed itineraries for Mr. Pruitt’s travels in June in Italy, with an agenda that shows most of his time was sightseeing. The excursions included a private tour of the Vatican library, a private tour of the excavations below Saint Peter’s Basilica and meals at top restaurants like Al Ceppo and La Terrazza at Hotel Eden, both in Rome.

One of the few work-related events on the schedule was a meeting with Italian-based executives from Dupont, Chemours and other chemical companies.

One complication this trip caused: Industry officials in Washington were still making appeals to meet with Mr. Pruitt, in closed-door gatherings. “The Administrator will be in Italy next week!” Ms. Hupp, who was a scheduler for Mr. Pruitt, wrote to an executive at Arch Coal, who had requested a meeting with Mr. Pruitt. “Wish that we could make it work!”

Scotty is the biggest

[Cartmann99]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

This makes me so mad that I wanted to give the 'angry' upvote. Sadly, the angry face is a downvote, so I had to go with wtf. 

That article makes me grateful that @Curious made the 'disgust' emoticon no longer count as a downvote. 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

‘But please do ensure that they refer to him as the Honorable’

Scotty poo maybe a lot of things, but honorable isn't one of them.

[fraurosena]

I'm not sure if the CIA belongs in this thread, but I didn't know where else to put this.

WARNING: this article contains descriptions of torture, and although it doesn't go into graphic detail too much, it is still quite disturbing. 

I Have a Few Questions for Gina Haspel

Quote

I was abducted from exile in Southeast Asia and secretly jailed in one of Libya’s worst dungeons. But the worst torture of my life wasn’t done to me by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s thugs. It was done in Thailand at the hands of the C.I.A.

It was March 2004. During this nightmare — my detention and “rendition” to Libya — I was pregnant. Shortly afterward, I gave birth. After what the C.I.A. did to me, my baby weighed four pounds.

Now I hear that Gina Haspel, who as a C.I.A. officer ran a black site in Thailand in 2002 that sounds like the one where I was tortured, has been chosen to lead the whole agency. On Wednesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee will question her to decide whether she is fit to be director.

I know what I’d ask her if I got the chance. Did you know about my abduction and abuse? Were you involved with it? What will you say if President Trump asks you to do something like that again?

I’ll never forget the sight of my kidnappers, dressed all in black and wearing ski masks, waiting for me in a white cell in the Bangkok detention site. My husband and I had fled Colonel Qaddafi’s regime, moving from country to country to stay away from his killers. We were on our way to Europe when we were seized in Malaysia and sent to Bangkok, where the Thais handed us to our kidnappers — people I now know, from documents found in Libya, were with the C.I.A. A man grabbed my head and shoved me into a truck. They blindfolded and trussed me.

I don’t understand why I was taken. I assume that the C.I.A. went after my husband because he led an Islamist group that openly opposed the Qaddafi dictatorship. But what did that have to do with me? I come from a small town in Morocco. I was not a political dissident. I’d never been to Libya until the C.I.A. flew me there, and I never meant the United States any harm. I hardly thought about the United States until I was chained to the wall in the C.I.A. black site.

I have no idea how long I was in the Thai secret prison because no one would let me sleep. The cell was white and stark, with nothing in it but a camera and hooks on the wall. The masked abductors were waiting. I was terrified. They chained me to the hooks. Because I was midway through my pregnancy, I could barely move or sit.

Some of what they did to me in that prison was so awful I can’t talk about it. They hit me in the abdomen just where the baby was. To move me, they bound me to a stretcher from head to toe, like a mummy. I was sure I would shortly be killed.

For the rendition flight to Libya, I was taped to a stretcher again. The tape caught the corner of my eye. It stayed that way, my eye taped open, tears streaming down my face, for more than 14 hours.

After I spent several weeks in a Libyan prison, Colonel Qaddafi’s spies dragged a crib into my cell. I was gravely ill. If I lived through this, I thought, I would be forced to give birth, alone, in this filthy cell.

Shortly before I delivered, they let me go. The birth was hard. My son and I lived in fear in Libya for years. My husband was in prison until 2010 and brutally tortured. We now live in Istanbul with our family.

I don’t know what Ms. Haspel’s part in what happened to me was or what she thinks about it. All I know is what I read: that she ran a prison in Thailand that sounds a lot like mine; that she went back to the C.I.A. to work on counterterrorism; and that later, she was involved in destroying evidence of torture.

The director of national intelligence has said that Ms. Haspel “plans to be totally transparent” about what she did. I hope she will be questioned about my case and whether she condones it. If she played a part, she should apologize. If she didn’t, she should swear under oath that the C.I.A. under her command will never again carry out abductions like mine.

I also read that the C.I.A. says America’s foreign allies respect Ms. Haspel. Maybe so. But if America wants to persuade the Muslim world it means us no harm, if it wants to regain lost trust, the C.I.A. can’t ignore history in the hope that it will go away. People remember injustice for a long time. The only answer is to explain what happened.

Even now, after everything I went through, I don’t think badly of Americans. In fact, I think Americans deserve honesty from their intelligence officers. I don’t believe most ordinary people would have supported what the C.I.A. did to me if they’d known.

I won’t get to ask Ms. Haspel these questions, but I hope a senator will. And if she wasn’t involved, and feels in her heart that torturing me was wrong, she should say so.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh good (end sarcasm): "Hours into his new job, Trump’s ambassador to Germany offends his hosts"

Spoiler

BERLIN — For the past year, German officials have been urging their U.S. counterparts to send a new ambassador to Berlin. But after finally receiving one, many may be having second thoughts.

Within hours of assuming his new post Tuesday, Richard Grenell triggered harsh criticism in this Trump-weary country after appearing to threaten one of the U.S. president’s frequent targets: German businesses.

In a tweet after President Trump’s announcement to leave the Iran nuclear deal, Grenell wrote that “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.” Germany, alongside France and Britain, wants to stick to the deal Trump is seeking to scrap. And while Grenell’s post may not deviate from the official White House stance on future European business dealings with Iran, the timing and tone struck some German politicians, journalists and business executives as offensive and inappropriate.

The remarks, which were widely perceived as a threat here, came only an hour after the U.S. Embassy in Berlin took to Twitter to announce that Grenell had officially arrived in the German capital.

While German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier may have kindly welcomed the new U.S. top diplomat in the German capital, business associations and leading European politicians immediately lashed out at him on his first day.

“It’s not my task to teach people about the fine art of diplomacy, especially not the U.S. ambassador. But he does appear to need some tutoring,” said Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany’s mainstream Social Democratic party, striking a sarcastic tone. The Social Democrats are part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and are in charge of key responsibilities, including the Foreign Ministry.

The left-wing Die Linke party urged the Merkel government to officially summon Grenell on Wednesday. Neither Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, nor a government spokesman were willing to comment on the ambassador’s remarks, however.

“Germans are eager to listen, but they will resent instructions,” wrote Wolfgang Ischinger, the chairman of the Munich Security Conference and an authority on transatlantic ties, responding directly to Grenell on Twitter. The criticism was echoed by top officials elsewhere in Europe.

Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told Germany’s Der Spiegel newsmagazine that the tweet was an “impertinence.”

“This man was accredited as ambassador only yesterday. To give German businesses such orders … that’s just not how you can treat your allies,” Asselborn said.

Business executives — who already felt unfairly targeted by Trump’s Twitter attacks and his tariff threats — didn’t hold back their criticism, either.

“I’m sure that our foreign ministry will indicate to the ambassador that it’s not his role to give direction or utter threats to German companies,” said Michael Tockuss, chairman of the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce.

The deal between Iran, the United States and several other countries lifted crippling sanctions on Iran in exchange for the halting of its nuclear program.

After the signing, Iranian exports to the European Union increased by 375 percent from 2015 to 2016. European companies have already invested a significant amount of money in the country, raising the stakes if the deal should collapse. German companies that depend disproportionately on exports would be most affected by the deal’s disintegration.

While Grenell’s Tuesday tweet may have struck Germans as offensive, some businesses said they would likely respect the measures. European plane-maker Airbus, for instance, announced that it would adhere to U.S. sanctions on Iran but added that it was still determining the full impact.

Grenell defended his tweet Wednesday, writing that he had used “the exact language sent out from the White House talking points & fact sheet.” Some German media outlets have acknowledged the diplomat’s experience as a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations during President George W. Bush’s administration, but his career as a Fox News Channel commentator and early defender of Trump has drawn ire. In the United States, Grenell’s confirmation had mainly made news because he is the highest-ranking openly gay member of the Trump administration.

If responses to Grenell’s Twitter defense Wednesday offer any indication, the new U.S. ambassador to Germany will face a difficult task in Berlin.

“That language is not going to further your cause. If anything, it will do the opposite. Good luck with the new job,” Marcel Dirsus, a German political scientist focusing on defense issues, responded to Grenell on Twitter.

Evening news anchor Christian Sievers appeared similarly unconvinced on whether Grenell’s approach would work in Berlin: “Is that some sort of apology from America’s (pretty undiplomatic) top diplomat in Germany?”

Wednesday’s unusually harsh criticism of a new U.S. ambassador to Germany also reflects how much transatlantic relations have soured since Trump’s inauguration. In responding to the president’s comments or actions, German’s top government officials have begun to go without the usual diplomatic phrases and are choosing to express open opposition. Merkel has previously warned that the collapse of the Iran deal could widen the divide between the United States and Europe.

Grenell’s tweet was reminiscent of the awkward start of the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, in December, after a reporter asked him why he said there were “no-go” areas in the country where radical Muslims are setting cars and politicians on fire. Hoekstra initially denied having made such comments and called the claim “fake news.” After realizing that there was video footage of him making those claims, he denied having used the term “fake news” just seconds before.

Making remarks disappear on Twitter may just be as difficult.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump Treasury nominee withdraws amid concern over finances"

Spoiler

Adam Lerrick has withdrawn as President Donald Trump’s nominee for assistant Treasury secretary for international finance, after languishing for more than a year without Senate confirmation.

Lerrick, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former investment banker, has extensive experience in dealing with sovereign debt crises in countries like Greece, Iceland and Argentina.

No reason was given for Lerrick’s withdrawal, but a person familiar with the matter said Senate Finance Committee members had raised concerns about his ties to the Argentine Bond Restructuring Agency, the largest group of foreign investors in Argentina’s debt when the country defaulted.

Lerrick served as ABRA’s lead negotiator in the South American nation’s restructuring.

According to an article by the Irish Times, ABRA had set up a special purpose vehicle in Dublin to hold the bonds before the restructuring, with three charitable trusts listed as its shareholders, including an Irish children’s charity.

When reached by POLITICO, Lerrick directed questions to the department’s press office about why he had withdrawn and whether he would remain as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. A Treasury spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump announced his intent to nominate Lerrick on March 14, 2017.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I hadn't read anything about this one. "This man runs a federal agency near Washington — from his home in Dallas "

Spoiler

The man named by President Trump last year to oversee regulation of the nation’s $1.4 trillion credit union industry has taken a novel approach to the agency he leads. Instead of going to his office near Washington every day, J. Mark McWatters works from his home.

In Dallas.

McWatters, whose salary as chairman of the National Credit Union Administration board is $165,300, may be the federal government’s most unlikely telecommuter.

The arrangement adds a wrinkle to the tendency among some Trump administration officials to spurn traditional government norms. An NCUA spokesman confirmed a Washington Post finding that McWatters works from Dallas and declined to say how often he travels to the headquarters in Alexandria, Va., where more than 400 of the agency’s 1,200 employees are based. 

Government watchdog groups said they could not recall another agency chief routinely working so far from his office.

“It’s unprecedented and in­cred­ibly troubling,” said Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, a nonpartisan group composed of scores of former lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries from both parties. “How can he lead a federal agency from his house?”

McWatters declined multiple requests for interviews and did not respond to questions emailed to him. The White House did not respond to questions about the vetting of McWatters or whether Trump knew about McWatters’s practice of telecommuting.

Agency spokesman John Fairbanks downplayed the significance of McWatters’s remote work, saying it has had no impact on NCUA operations, because the agency is “predominantly a virtual workforce.” He said McWatters travels to Alexandria at his own expense for monthly board meetings and other occasions when his duties, such as testifying before Congress, require that he be there.

“Regardless of location, Mr. McWatters is engaged with staff at the NCUA every day using the full suite of video, voice and electronic tools available to our staff,” Fairbanks said. 

The government has for years encouraged wider use of telework among federal workers, citing improved recruitment, retention and other factors. Almost a half-million federal workers participated in telework programs in fiscal 2016, according to data maintained by Telework.gov.

But watchdog groups and longtime observers say it is rare for senior managers, and almost unheard of for an agency leader, to routinely work from home. 

Trump named McWatters acting chairman of the agency on Jan. 23, 2017 — after his more than two years as a minority-party member of the agency’s board, appointed by President Barack Obama — and then chairman in June. McWatters has since followed through on promises to ease the regulatory burden on credit unions and to cut costs and staffing at the agency, documents and interviews show. 

A lawyer, an accountant and an advocate of free-market principles, McWatters has sometimes spent agency money in the style of a corporate executive.

Not long after he joined the board in 2014, McWatters bought nearly $22,000 worth of furniture for a headquarters office he rarely used, records show. Though leaders of many government agencies must notify Congress if they want to spend more than $5,000 on office furniture and upgrades, that requirement does not apply to the NCUA, which is funded through fees paid by credit unions.

“All new board members are permitted to purchase office furniture, and it is commonly done,” Fairbanks said.

McWatters has used limousine services dozens of time while traveling to meetings across the country, spending about $114 per trip on average, according to records provided by the agency. He once paid $582 for a “luxury sedan” and driver for himself and a colleague to travel from Madison, Wis., to Green Bay. Last year, he spent $12,000 to fly from Dallas to Barcelona to attend a conference.

Fairbanks said that all of McWatters’s work-related expenses conform to agency guidelines and that all board members travel frequently on agency business.

In email exchanges, Fairbanks initially said McWatters’s “main office and duty station” is the NCUA headquarters in Alexandria. Two days later, he added that McWatters “works from his location.” Days after that, in response to questions about the meaning of “his location,” Fairbanks acknowledged McWatters is a long-distance telecommuter. “Chairman McWatters does work from his residence in Dallas,” Fairbanks wrote.

Fairbanks said McWatters chose to work remotely in part because, after he and his wife divorced, their son lived in his house in Dallas. “It was important for Chairman McWatters to telework from Dallas when his duties did not require his presence in Alexandria,” Fairbanks said.

Fairbanks said McWatters has been an effective leader. McWatters has reorganized the agency, trimmed more than 5 percent of the workforce through attrition and cut more than $10 million in costs while ensuring credit unions operate safely and account holders are protected, Fairbanks said.

The NCUA became an independent federal agency in 1970 to regulate and insure the deposits of credit unions, which operate as nonprofit financial institutions on behalf of members. There are more than 5,500 federally insured credit unions, with 111 million members, most of them middle-class people.

Though the number of federally insured credit unions has been dropping for a quarter-century, they have become larger and more complex as the number of customers and the average assets have risen sharply.

The board is composed of three members who serve six-year terms, and it can have no more than two members from a single political party. The chairman is responsible for implementing regulations and policies and interacts with Congress and other federal officials.

All board members work full time for the agency and are more directly involved in management than the members of a corporate board typically are. No other chairman in memory has worked remotely, former board members said.

Concerns about McWatters’s teleworking surfaced during a board meeting in February 2016, almost a year before he became the agency’s leader.

McWatters was complaining that his colleagues had not adopted a wording change he had proposed, at 6 p.m. the night before, to a rule they were considering. He suggested they should be more flexible, particularly because “from the perspective of a practicing lawyer, 6 o’clock is practically the middle of the day,” a transcript and video of the meeting show.

Deborah Matz, then the chair, and Rick Metsger, then the vice chairman, bridled at the criticism.

“Perhaps if you came to the office more than three days a month and got your briefing more than two days in advance of our meeting, we’d be able to have discussions about issues in a timely fashion,” Matz, a Democrat, told McWatters.

When traveling as a member to board meetings, generally scheduled on the third Thursday of every month, McWatters typically arrived in Northern Virginia on Monday afternoon and left after the meeting, according to people who worked at the NCUA at the time.

In a statement to The Post, Matz declined to discuss McWatters but said she believes the agency chairman needs to be present to be effective.

“I couldn’t imagine doing the job as chairman effectively if I wasn’t in the office every day interacting with the regulatory staff, attorneys, and other regulators at other financial services agencies,” wrote Matz, who served as chair from August 2009 through April 2016. “It is a very full-time position.”

Michael E. Fryzel, a Chicago native who was appointed chairman in 2008, said he also felt it necessary to work in Alexandria. Fryzel, a Republican, said he had hoped his presence would help him manage problems and send a signal to staff members during the global financial crisis.

“It was important that staff knew the Chairman was working as hard as he wanted them to,” he wrote to The Post.

Before he was named to the board, McWatters, 63, was assistant dean of graduate programs and a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, and an adjunct professor at SMU’s business school. He had been a law partner at a prominent firm, worked as counsel to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) and served on the oversight panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Hensarling, also a free-market advocate, is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees McWatters’s agency.

McWatters took an unusual approach to the regulatory job from the start. After his Senate confirmation in June 2014, he waited nearly three months to take his oath of office — and then did so at Hensarling’s office in Texas.