Republicans on Capitol Hill are growing frustrated with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt — and many are now publicly questioning whether he can hang on to his job amid the unending stream of scandals.

Several GOP lawmakers said their patience was running thin after this week's news that Pruitt sought to buy to buy a used mattress from the Trump Hotel and inquired about securing a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife. And Pruitt's circle of confidantes inside the agency appeared to be shrinking as well, with two of his closest aides set to depart in the coming days.


“The constant drip needs to stop so the agency can get its footing and focus back,” House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told reporters. “They’re doing some really good work in the environmental front, but this needs to stop.”

“Sometimes people get tripped up on other things besides the core mission, and I think that’s what you’re seeing,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told reporters.

Pruitt’s scheduler, Millan Hupp, is resigning following her interview by the House Oversight Committee during which she disclosed that she helped her boss find housing and inquired about purchasing a used mattress for him from the Trump International Hotel.

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And his top legal counsel, Sarah Greenwalt, will also depart, according to sources. Both women had worked for Pruitt in the Oklahoma attorney general's office and both were among the staff that received raises that had been rejected by the White House.

"I think it's extremely fair to say her and Millan both are tired of the daily grind here," one EPA official said. "Everybody is painfully aware of that."

While acknowledging that President Donald Trump would ultimately make any decision about Pruitt's job, several Republicans indicated Pruitt’s support was waning in their conference.

“I’m not going to come down here, just because he happens to be a nominee of a president I support or a nominee from my party, and try to defend the indefensible,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. “I thought that Mr. Pruitt would have learned his lesson.”

Kennedy added: “I said the same thing about Tom Price,” referring to Trump’s former HHS secretary who resigned after spending lavishly on military and private jets.

Trump reaffirmed his support for Pruitt on Wednesday when they participated in a briefing on the 2018 hurricane season with several Cabinet officials.

"EPA is doing really, really well," Trump said. "You know, somebody has to say that about you a little bit. You know that, Scott."

But even staunch Pruitt allies like Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said the mounting scandals had them rethinking their support.

“Some are true, some are not true. Whether he can weather the storm, I’m not sure,” Inhofe said. “The accusations are all troubling. They are.”

A few Republicans stood by Pruitt, arguing he’s been targeted by an environmental community and press corps eager to take him down.

“I like him,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said. “He is a target because he’s keeping the president’s campaign promises.”

But a more common view among GOP lawmakers was the collective stream of scandals were taking their toll and making Pruitt’s position untenable.

"Take a thousand cuts and [there's] not much energy left,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told reporters.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who leads the Energy and Commerce subcommittee overseeing EPA, joked he “can’t keep up” with the flood of allegations and said he’s concerned they haven’t stopped.

“These unforced errors are unforced errors,” he said. “I don’t like being asked all the time about this.”

But he raised a possible reason why Republicans weren’t abandoning Pruitt: getting a replacement confirmed by the Senate would be nearly impossible.

“Are you going to promise me we could even get an administrator?” he said. “I think that’s another concern.”

In a video posted by a Nexstar Wednesday, Pruitt defended his attempts to set his wife up with a Chick-fil-A franchise Wednesday, while the president reaffirmed his support in the administrator.

Pruitt said that his wife is "an entrepreneur herself" and that the pair loved the fast-food franchise. As he has in the past, Pruitt dismissed criticism of his behavior as being driven by opposition to the Trump administration's deregulatory policies.

"With great change comes, I think, opposition," he said in a clip the reporter posted to Twitter.

Pruitt did not directly address whether he had asked an EPA aide to reach out to Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy to inquire about his wife opening up her own restaurant, as the Washington Post first reported Tuesday.

"Chick-fil-A is a franchise of faith and it's one of the best in the country, so that was something we were very excited about," he told the Nextstar reporter Wednesday. "We need more of them in Tulsa, [Okla.]. We need more of them across the country."

Kelsey Tamborrino contributed to this report.