The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog recommended Thursday that the agency should consider recovering nearly $124,000 in “excessive” costs from former administrator Scott Pruitt for his first-class travel.
The $123,942 identified by EPA’s inspector general represents taxpayer money spent on flying Pruitt and a security officer in first or business class, instead of coach.
“The exception that allowed for the [first class] travel accommodation was granted without sufficient justification and, initially, without appropriate approval authority,” the inspector general said in explaining its reasoning for why the spending was “excessive.”
The EPA inspector general’s office issued the report nearly a year after Pruitt resigned as head of the EPA after a series of controversies that overshadowed his year of leading President Trump’s deregulatory agenda.
When he resigned, Pruitt was the subject of at least a dozen federal investigations, over issues including his $50-per-night condo rental deal with the wife of an energy lobbyist who had business before the EPA, spending millions on his 24-hour security detail, frequent first-class travel, reports he retaliated against employees who questioned his judgment, and more.
Pruitt deflected criticism of his travel habits by saying he faced “unprecedented” security threats from taunting travelers opposed to his agenda, which prompted EPA career security staff to grant him waivers to sit in first class.
The EPA continues to defend Pruitt, releasing a statement Thursday justifying his first-class travel, and saying it would be “inappropriate” to recover the $123,942 that the inspector general recommended.
Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized the EPA for refusing to recoup the travel expenses from Pruitt.
“EPA’s disappointing response to the OIG’s report is yet another in a long line of examples of EPA failing to uphold its mission,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the committee’s chairman. “Pruitt may have long since resigned in disgrace, but it is clear that the Trump EPA continues to lack integrity and transparency.”
The inspector general report reviewed 40 trips that Pruitt either took or scheduled during a 10-month period from March 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2017, costing $985,037 in total.
Of those 40 trips, 16 included “travel to, or stops in, Oklahoma,” Pruitt’s home state.
