Hnitrd Status gamut: WASHINGTON, DC 20510 December 19, 2017 The Honorable Scott Pruitt Administrator Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Avenue NW Washington, DC. 20460 Dear Administrator Pruitt: We are writing you to express our concerns about the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to award a $120,000 no-bid contract for ?news analysis? to De?ners Public Affairs, as reported this week by Mother Jones? and the New York Times.2 contract with De?ners risks further politicizing the agency and is another instance of EPA under your tenure becoming captured by the industry it regulates.3 At a minimum, it presents an appearance of impropriety to which you as Administrator should never be a party. For the reasons that follow, you should terminate this contract immediately. De?ners shares an address and staff with America Rising, a political action committee (PAC) that has been described as the ?unof?cial research arm of the Republican party.?4 America Rising has branded itself as an organization on the right founded ?for the sole purpose of exposing the truth about Democrats through video tracking, research, and communications.? The group spends its time attacking Democrats, progressives, and environmentalists and lists De?ners as one of its largest vendors.6 America Rising also operates the 501(c)(4) organization America Rising Squared, a dark money organization whose contributors are anonymous. The leadership teams of America Rising and De?ners share numerous individuals. For example, De?ners? founder, Matt Rhoades, also founded America Rising.7 De?ners? president, Joe Pounder, is also the president of America Rising.8 Definers? Senior Vice President, Brian Rogers, is also the executive director of America Rising Squared.9 These organizations may 5 ?The EPA Hired a Major Republican Opposition Research Firm to Track Press Activity,? Mother Jones, http: \s?wthotheriopcscom politics 20 I 7 12 2 Contractor Has Spent Past Year Scouring the Agency for Anti-Trump Of?cials,? The New York Times, ng'x'inuimescom 20177127 1:115 3 ?How Rollbacks at Scott Pruitt?s E.P.A. Are a Boon to Oil and Gas,? The New York Times, 2017 ?Under Trump, E.P.A. Has Slowed Actions Against Polluters, and Put Limits on Enforcement Of?cers,? The New York Times, uwu.mtimes.com 2017 12_ 100,115 politics 4 ?Political Operatives Find Demand for Their Skills in Business World," The Wall Street Journal, lmps: w? .u 51' .com 5 America Rising, a_b_o_uI-us 6 America Rising PAC Expenditures (2018), Open Secretsorg, pilCS 2018 7 Matt Rhoades, Definers, 8 Joe Pounder, De?ners, w? 9 Brian Rogers, De?ners. hugs: \xwu brunt-rogers have different corporate forms, but we should all be clear that they are merely different parts of the same multi-faceted partisan operation. Any claim they are distinct is a sham. What?s more, America Rising and De?ners receive signi?cant funds from interests in the energy sector as well as other industries you regulate as EPA Administrator. While this cabal of Republican opposition research and electioneering organizations can raise much of its money anonymously so that the identities of many of its donors are unknown to the public, press reports about De?ners? work and Federal Election Commission (FEC) disclosures from the America Rising PAC make it abundantly clear that companies you regulate are driving much of its work. De?ners was hired by fossil fuel interests to work on opposing a local ballot initiative in Colorado that would have placed conditions on oil and gas drilling.'0 America Rising has received sizeable donations from several companies and individuals af?liated with the energy industry, including Hilcorp Energy, L.E. Simmons of SCF Partners, and Jonathon Barrett of Luminus Management LLC. It has also received donations from companies and individuals in other industries regulated by EPA, including Susan Groff of Northwest Excavating, William Kunkler of CC Industries (manufacturing), George Daniels of Daniels Manufacturing, and Jerry Langer of Langer Transport.ll Many of these same corporate interests vocally supported your nomination and con?rmation as EPA Administrator. America Rising even ran a campaign in support of your con?rmation as EPA Administrator which included ads urging senators to vote for your con?rmation and the website, At your con?rmation hearing, Senator Whitehouse asked you the following question for the record, which has renewed relevance in light of recent events: 138. Please provide any correspondence or details about other communication between you or anyone working on your behalf concerning the establishment or activities of America Rising, America Rising Squared, and Protecting America Now, and any other organizations that are funding efforts to get you con?rmed as EPA Administrator. A. I am not aware of any such correspondence. Your response was dubious then, and is even more dubious now. The America Rising-De?ners network has been no less active on your behalf following your con?rmation than it was before, even putting aside this recent contract. The aforementioned Joe Pounder, president of De?ners and America Rising, wears yet another hat in this constellation of interconnected partisan groups: he runs a website called the Need to Know Network (N TK) that has provided favorable coverage of your tenure at of?cial Twitter account has even on several occasions tweeted coverage of your work at EPA. '0 Undennining Broom?eld,? The Colorado Independent, h_t_tp: w? .coloradoindc 10743 I America Rising PAC Contributors (20l6). Open Secrets.org, pats 20m ?2 ?Conservatives target red-state Democrats to speed Trump's nominations,? Politico, .politico.com slur} 2m 6 As if all this weren?t enough, De?ners has ?led several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with EPA relating to work EPA was doing under the previous administration with respect to the treatment of wood.[4 It would appear that De?ners is working for a corporate client that has business before EPA relating to this matter. America Rising has also ?led several FOIA requests with EPA.15 These requests were ?led by the same person who ?led the FOIA requests for De?ners; this person works at both De?ners and America Rising. '6 America Rising?s FOIA requests seek to obtain emails from speci?c EPA employees and/or correspondence between speci?c EPA employees and various media outlets as well as the staffs of Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Carper, Elizabeth Warren, and Robert Casey in an apparent effort to uncover ?moles? within EPA. The New York Times has recently documented how EPA enforcement has fallen off signi?cantly during your tenure.l7 Senators Carper and Whitehouse last week raised concerns that you have changed agency policy to give regulated industries an unprecedented seat at the table in negotiations to settle lawsuits where EPA is charged with failing to follow through on its statutory commitments to enforce the Clean Air Act and other environmental laws. Hiring a public relations ?rm with abundant ties to industries you regulate, which is itself part of a broader network of groups active on behalf of you and fossil fuel interests, suggests that you have handed industry the keys to EPA. None of this can come as a surprise to you. In 2015, America Rising paid to attend the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) annual summit at which you spoke.'8 You led RAGA for two years, where you worked through RAGA to attack EPA during the Obama administration. Your representatives have claimed that contract with De?ners is for ?media monitoring/newsclip compilation?19 and that it was retained ?at a rate that is $87,000 cheaper than our previous vendor and they are providing no other services.?20 All of the above information about De?ners, its activities, clients, and role within a much larger ecosystem of partisan, industry-funded operations research and electioneering groups casts signi?cant doubt on these statements. In light of the above and in order to shed light on decision to award this contract, we are asking that you provide the following documents and responses by Thursday, December 21. '4 EPA Pending FOIA Requests, sites Qrodggtigg files 2017-, report '5 Id. Allan Blutstein, De?ners, '7 ?Under Trump, E.P.A. I-las Slowed Actions Against Polluters, and Put Limits on Enforcement Of?cers,? The New York Times. nuns; l2 l0 us '8 ?To Fight Clean Power Plan, Fossil Fuel Companies Paid for Private Meetings with Republican State Prosecutors,? DeSmogBlog, 30 lo 0907 liglJt?glcgan-pou cr-plun-tossil-fuel- '9 ?The EPA Hired a Major Republican Opposition Research Firm to Track Press Activity,? Mother Jones, h_ttp;~ 12 chss-actix'itx 20 Contractor Has Spent Past Year Scouring the Agency for Anti-Trump Of?cials,? The New York Times, hum: 12 '5 gapolitics sparscuu-ptuiII-t?OLuJLIIJiJ 1. Provide copies of all documents related to the procurement of services with De?ners as well as the contract EPA concluded with De?ners for these services. 2. What provision of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) authorized a no-bid contract for the type of services EPA procured from De?ners? According to the contract transaction details posted on the usaspendinggov website, the reason not to put this contract out to bid was that there was ?only one source other?? Please explain what this means when in fact there are many ?rms that offer the services for which EPA contracted with De?ners, including the ?rm that previously did that work. 3. Provide copies of all communications between EPA and De?ners, America Rising, America Rising Squared, NTK, and any employees and representatives of these entities since February 17, 2017. 4. Con?rm that all communications you or any EPA employee have had with any person in question 3, regardless of the form of communication used, have been retained by EPA and searched in response to this inquiry. 5. Provide communications or documentation to establish that no EPA funds paid to De?ners or any af?liated group have been spent for ?publicity or propaganda? or a ?prepackaged news story? in violation of sections 715, 718 or 731 of division of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017. 6. Provide communications or documentation to establish that no EPA funds paid to De?ners or any af?liated group have been spent with the intent or the reasonable expectation that the funds would be used to make a contribution, expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication in violation of section 735 of division of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017. 7. Provide all communications between EPA and the De?ners America Rising network as to and regulated entities that are also clients of or donors to De?ners America Rising. Describe and provide all communications related to due diligence efforts to determine if any con?icts of interest existed between the agency and regulated entities that are clients of or donors to De?ners America Rising. Provide all communications to or from EPA related to Broom?eld, CO, ballot initiative Question 301 this year.22 8. Provide documentation or, if not available, a narrative description of the processes and procedures in place to ensure no client or funder of De?ners-America Rising or any related entity can exert improper in?uence over EPA enforcement proceedings or litigation. 9. Provide all communications between EPA and the De?ners America Rising - NTK network of af?liated groups relating to EPA employee communications that were requested under FOIA by anyone from the De?ners America Rising NTK network of af?liated groups. These employees include but are not limited to Natasha Greaves, 2? De?ners, USA Spending, hugs: mm transparenm 53DEAFOE-856647138- l?pc 22 Undermining Broom?eld," The Colorado Independent, imp: 167,113] Michael Mikulka, Lucretia Meyers, Thelma Estrada, Gary Morton, Anthony Tseng, Christopher Grundler, Mike Shapiro, John Reeder, Enesta Jones, Christie St. Clair, Deborah Szaro, Michael Cox, Elizabeth Southerland, and Priscilla Oliver. In an interview with the New York Times, Allan Blutstein, a senior vice president at De?ners explained that he sought this information to take aim at ?resistance? ?gures in the federal government and to see if they had done anything useful for Republicans.23 If any of these individuals have faced adverse personnel actions since February 17, 2017, please explain the nature of the action, the circumstances surrounding the action, and provide any correspondence concerning those individuals between EPA and any person af?liated with the De?ners America Rising NTK network of af?liated groups. 10. Explain how the facts described above America Rising?s active ?nancial support of your con?rmation as well as your earlier political career, favorable press coverage of your tenure at EPA, De?ner?s working on behalf of regulated entities, regulated entities funding America Rising?s work do not constitute a series of con?icts of interest. We would be particularly interested to learn why you believe that scientists who are awarded EPA grant money are con?icted while the De?ners America Rising NTK network is not. Should you have any questions regarding any of the information we are requesting in this letter, please do not hesitate to contact our staffers, Dan Dudis at dan and Monica Pham at monica phanrq harrisscnategm. We look forward to your response. Sincerely, ?jon Whiteiouse K"kamala D. Harris United States Senator United States Senator 23 Contractor Has Spent Past Year Scouring the Agency for Anti-Trump Of?cials,? The New York Times, 2017 12 lS'us