The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general will investigate whether Administrator Scott Pruitt broke federal spending laws by using $25,000 in taxpayer money to install a secure phone booth in his office.
Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat of the Energy and Commerce Committee, asked for the probe in October, and on Tuesday, he confirmed the EPA’s internal watchdog would proceed.
“Your letter does raise issues about whether those agency decisions comply with appropriations law,” the inspector general’s office wrote in a letter to Pallone. “That is within the authority of the IG to review, and we will do so.”
The inspector general already is investigating Pruitt for his frequent travel to his home state of Oklahoma, where he served as attorney general.
Democrats questioned Pruitt for his travel habits and use of a secure phone booth during his testimony last week before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The EPA signed a $24,570 contract with Acoustical Solutions this summer for a “privacy booth for the administrator,” the Washington Post reported in September, which none of his predecessors had in their offices.
“Your costs are especially offensive given the severe cuts you have proposed to essential and lifesaving programs [at the EPA],” said Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., at the hearing.
Pruitt defended his use of the phone booth, saying he needed to discuss classified information and to have private conversations with the White House.
“There are secured conversations that need to take place that I didn’t have access to,” Pruitt said. “Cabinet-level officials need to have access to secured communications.”
