VA chief trips over the line
EPA’S HIGH FLIER: I NEED A PEON-FREE SAFE ZONE
GAME, SET, match.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, excoriated in an 87-page report on his travel expenses, says he will pick up the full tab for those free tickets to the Wimbeldon tennis tournament.
The Washington honcho was also blasted Wednesday for his wife’s taxpayer-paid airfare during on an 11-day European trip last year — and Shulkin said that he’s already started making reparations.
“In retrospect, I wish that I had asked more questions,” Shulkin (photo) told USA Today after his agency’s inspector general accused the secretary and his staff of egregious “judgement and/or misconduct.”
Shulkin, within hours of the report’s release, said he had already sent a check for $4,312 to cover his wife’s airfare when she accompanied him on the visit to England and Denmark.
Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements about the trip — making it appear as if Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government.
The fake honor was used to justify paying for his wife’s travels.
Chief of staff Vivieca Wright Simpson’s “false representations and alteration of an official record may have violated federal criminal statutes,” the report concluded.
The incident was forwarded for possible prosecution to the Justice Department, where authorities declined to bring charges.
Shulkin, the lone Obama administration holdover, also improperly accepted a gift of tickets to a Wimbledon tennis match worth thousands of dollars, the investigation found.
The secretary said he planned to make good on WASHINGTON — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has broken months of silence about his frequent premium-class flights at taxpayer expense, saying he needs to fly first class because of unpleasant interactions with other travelers. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt spoke about his flight costs on Tuesday in a pair of interviews in New Hampshire, after he flew first class to meet with the state’s Republican governor and tour a toxic waste site. Pruitt (photo) told the New Hampshire Union Leader that “incidents” on prior flights resulted in his staff and security detail deciding to book premium-class seats for him. “We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment,” he said. Pruitt is the first EPA administrator to have a 24-hour security detail that accompanies him at all times, even at the agency’s headquarters. the cost of the tennis tickets as well, and blamed himself for a failure to question his staff’s efforts. “I believe that I relied upon the processes that are there,” he told USA Today. “You know what? Every Cabinet secretary has to rely upon their staff to do this work.” The VA’s inspector general report also challenges Shulkin’s direction of agency staff on official time to arrange personal sightseeing activities during the July trip to England and Denmark.