1/12/2018

BUDGET/EPA/SCOTT PRUITT: “The Environmental Protection Agency inspector general will look into agency spending in connection with EPA enforcement agents being used on Administrator Scott Pruitt’s security detail, according to a letter sent to Rep. Peter DeFazio, the top Democrat on the House Transportation Committee.
The letter from Inspector General Arthur A. Elkins Jr. says that his office will look into ‘whether the EPA complied with applicable oversight controls in deciding to make the expenditures’ to add security to Pruitt’s security detail…
Pruitt’s security detail was in the process of hiring a dozen more agents, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN then, as the number of threats against the agency leader increased. The incoming agents were intended to grow the team that works in shifts to provide him around-the-clock protection, something unheard of for Pruitt’s predecessors.
Pruitt’s travel spending has also come under scrutiny in recent months following news reports outlining frequent trips to his home state of Oklahoma as well as several flights on charter and government aircraft… Previous EPA administrators, whose public profiles and security arrangements are typically smaller than other members of the Cabinet, haven’t had anywhere close to the level of security being assembled for Pruitt. (CNN has withheld specific details about the size of Pruitt’s security detail.)”

-Caroline Kenny and Rene Marsh, “EPA inspector general to look into agency spending on Pruitt’s security detail,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 12, 2018 12:43pm