Two U.S. senators are questioning whether a new hire at the Environmental Protection Agency is violating White House ethics rules since she is a former lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Elizabeth "Tate" Bennett recently joined EPA's Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations as deputy associate administrator. In her new role, Bennett will act a liaison between the agency and federal and state lawmakers.

Bennett previously was senior principal for government affairs at NRECA, where she lobbied on behalf of electric cooperatives. In a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) say her hiring appears to violate a Trump administration ethics pledge signed by all political appointees. Government staffers who sign the pledge agree not to participate in any matter on which they lobbied during the past two years.

"We do not see how Ms. Bennett can perform her job, consistent with the limitations of the Ethics Pledge," the senators said in the letter. "Because of her activities as a registered federal lobbyist she cannot work on legislation, communicate with Congress, or coordinate and monitor regional, state and local responses to a wide-range of major issues faced by EPA."

The senators also criticized the choice of Bennett to the position, even if the EPA was about to find "some subset of issues" not covered by the pledge.

"(I)nstalling someone who has lobbied for an organization that has attacked EPA's efforts under both Republican and Democratic administrations as a public liaison for EPA suggests you have little regard for EPA's standing and reputation before Congress or the communities in which it works to protect public health," the senators added. http://bit.ly/2qwvTTQ

The agency did not immediately respond to media requests for comment about the letter.

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