"The Republican chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to ensure that the agency’s internal watchdog office has the funding it needs.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) sent a letter this week to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee subpanel with authority over the EPA’s budget, advocating for better funding for the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

The OIG has taken on numerous high-profile investigations or audits involving EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s ethics and spending scandals, which threatens to strain the office’s budget.

While Barrasso did not endorse a specific funding level, he said he supports “sufficient funding” for the OIG."

Timothy Cama reports for The Hill June 14, 2018. [2]