Auditors say Pruitt’s $43,000 phone booth broke law
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency violated the law when it installed a soundproof phone booth for the administrator, Scott Pruitt, at a cost of roughly $43,000, a congressional watchdog agency ruled Monday.
The congressional agency, the Government Accountability Office, said in a report that the EPA had not notified Congress as required before spending more than $5,000 on office equipment.
In a separate report Monday, the EPA’s inspector general published records showing that Pruitt’s chief of staff signed off on hires and thousands of dollars in raises for political appointees under a provision of a clean water law. That report was part of an ongoing audit of salaries and hiring practices at the agency.
The GAO said it was not taking a position on whether or not the installation of the privacy booth was necessary, but was focusing only on the violations of two laws: the Antideficiency Act, which is designed to prevent spending that has not been budgeted, and the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, which limits the amount political appointees may spend on office item to $5,000.
Auditors wrote that the EPA’s “failure to comply with a governmentwide statutory requirement that an agency notify the appropriations committees before it spends more than $5,000 for the office of a presidential appointee” was a violation of the law and should be reported to Congress and the president.
In an eight-page letter to lawmakers, Thomas H. Armstrong, the GAO’s general counsel, said the agency did not send advance notice to Congress when it paid $43,238.68 from its Environmental Programs and Management budget to pay for the installation of the soundproof booth.
The GAO reports its findings to Congress but has little enforcement power of its own.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who requested the investigation along with three other members of Congress, said Pruitt was “blatantly breaking laws and ethics rules that protect taxpayers from government waste, fraud and abuse in order to help himself to perks and special favors.”
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over the EPA, also criticized the agency.
“It is critical that EPA comply with notification requirements to Congress before spending taxpayer dollars,” Barrasso said in a statement
Liz Bowman, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said the “EPA is addressing GAO’s concern, and will be sending Congress the necessary information this week.”
The GAO report noted that federal laws would not have blocked the EPA from purchasing the phone booth, and Bowman said that the accountability office had recognized the need for employees to have secure telephone lines to handle sensitive information.