A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report concludes that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt broke the law by installing a $43,000 sound-proof phone booth in his offices.
The EPA “was required to notify the appropriations committees of its proposed obligation,” the GAO wrote in the report. “By failing to provide such advance notice, EPA violated section 710” of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act.
Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, issued the following statement. “This report on Administrator Pruitt’s illegally purchased sound-proof phone booth confirms Mr. Pruitt’s contempt for the law, his paranoid obsession with secrecy, and his blatant disregard for spending taxpayer dollars,” said Schaeffer, former director of civil enforcement at EPA. “The Environmental Protection Agency is not the CIA, and its administrator does not need a secret phone booth. The only possible explanation is that Mr. Pruitt wants a place to hide while he’s talking to his clients in the oil, gas, and coal industries.”
The EPA Administrator has come under much scrutiny for his spending habits, including the high cost of his round-the-clock security detail, first-class flights, private and military charter flights, and his $50 a night sweetheart rental in a townhouse linked to the CEO of a lobbying firm with clients regulated by EPA.
The Environmental Integrity Project is a 15-year-old nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, based in Washington D.C., dedicated to enforcing environmental laws and holding polluters and governments accountable to protect public health.
