John Konkus is Trump’s new Deputy Associate Administrator for Public Affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency. Appointed by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Mr. Konkus isn’t a scientist. He isn’t an expert in environmental law, or environmental science. He’s not experienced in program management, or grant management, anything else that you might think.
He was a VP at “Jamestown Associates”, a political consulting firm. He does public affairs. I’d say he’s a Republican political operative, if I wanted to be polite.
He’s a hack. His new job is to review every EPA grants on the basis of Republican politics and block anything that doesn’t pass ideological muster. There is no appeal. Roughly half the EPA $8B budget is for these grants, so call it $4B in grants. This is the description of Konkus’ new job from the Washington Post:
…John Konkus reviews every award the agency gives out, along with every grant solicitation before it is issued. According to both career and political employees, Konkus has told staff that he is on the lookout for “the double C-word” — climate change — and repeatedly has instructed grant officers to eliminate references to the subject in solicitations.
A public affairs guy. And another scientific agency is corrupted into a political ‘resource’ for Republicans and Trump.
Remember: this is your money, trusted to the government. The law says it’s supposed to be allocated to go to the best science, in order to protect us. It isn’t supposed to be someone’s slush fund.
Grants are being reviewed to ensure they adhere to the Trump administration’s goals and policies and the EPA’s back-to-basics agenda.
— EPA Statement
Yeah… no, it’s just been stolen. Ensuring the money was used ‘wisely,’ I’m sure. Mr. Konkus has revoked around $2 million in grants that had already been competitively awarded to universities and nonprofits under Obama. Now, he’s denying any grants to Alaska in retribution for Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s vote against Trumpcare.
Don’t pretend this is Trump. Konkus is a long-time Republican flack. This is just what ‘Republican leadership’ really is: a criminal enterprise.
