WASHINGTON -- A third top EPA official is leaving the agency as scrutiny intensifies of Administrator Scott Pruitt's travel, spending and condo rental.
Associate Administrator Liz Bowman, the top public affairs official at the Environmental Protection Agency, is leaving to become a spokesman for Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.
Bowman's departure follows two others this week: the exit of Albert Kelly, the top EPA adviser on Superfund cleanups, and former Secret Service agent Pasquale "Nino" Perrotta, who led Pruitt's security detail. Longtime Pruitt ally Samantha Dravis announced her resignation last month.
Kelly, who was Pruitt's banker in Oklahoma, resigned Tuesday. So did Perrotta, who has come under congressional scrutiny recently for unusual spending on Pruitt's protective detail.
The exodus comes amid steep criticism of Pruitt -- including calls by at least 170 Democratic lawmakers and four Republicans for his ouster. There are at least 10 formal investigations into Pruitt, including probes of his rental of a Capitol Hill bedroom from a lobbyist for $50 a night under unusually generous terms, frequent taxpayer-funded travel to his home state of Oklahoma, questionable spending decisions at the EPA and raises for two top aides over White House objections.
Lawmakers also want to know more about Pruitt's four-day trip to Morocco in December, following revelations that a lobbyist helped orchestrate the expedition and then made a deal to formally represent the African country in the U.S.
As the associate administrator for public affairs, Bowman has been on the front lines of the EPA's sometimes rocky relations with the news media, and at times she delivered sharp critiques of reporters covering the agency. Bowman also was in charge of making strategic communications decisions and coordinating EPA responses to the deluge of damaging revelations against Pruitt that began in late March.
After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston last year, the EPA press office accused a D.C.-based journalist at the Associated Press with "reporting from the comfort of Washington," even though other AP reporters co-wrote the stories from Houston. The AP had reported on the flooding of toxic Superfund sites in the hurricane-hit city that EPA employees had not yet been able to visit.
In a statement at the time, Bowman accused the news wire service of "cherry-picking facts" and of practicing "yellow journalism."
"What Liz brought to the table at EPA was good judgment, good management, good organization," EPA Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson said in a statement. "She has a great opportunity ahead of her at the Senate. She will work for a great member that has a great future in front of her."
Bowman is one of several political appointees who arrived at the EPA from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group representing Dow Chemical Co., BASF SE and Monsanto Co.
Bowman said she was leaving the EPA "extremely thankful for the opportunity to serve the Trump administration and Administrator Pruitt."
"Being a member of the EPA team has allowed me to further my skills, learn from my mistakes and make lifelong friendships," Bowman said. "It has also provided me the opportunity to develop a new, and deep, respect for the public servants who serve the American people, day in and day out, to ensure that we all have access to clean air, land, and water."
Information for this article was contributed by Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News and by Dino Grandoni of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/04/2018