The Environmental Protection Agency broke the law when it spent $43,000 in taxpayer money to install a secure phone booth in Administrator Scott Pruitt’s office, according to a government watchdog.
The Government Accountability Office said Monday morning the EPA did not comply with the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, because it spent more than $5,000 on the phone booth without notifying Congress.
That law prohibits government agencies from paying more than $5,000 to redecorate or furnish a presidential appointee’s office without approval from lawmakers.
[Related: Environmental groups aim to ‘boot’ Scott Pruitt over ‘wasteful spending’ at EPA]
The EPA signed a $24,570 contract with Acoustical Solutions last summer for a “privacy booth for the administrator,” which none of his predecessors had.
Prep work for the booth and installation brought the total cost to roughly $43,000.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Monday that the EPA must explain itself.
“It is critical that EPA and all federal agencies comply with notification requirements to Congress before spending tax payer dollars,” Barrasso said in a statement. “EPA must give a full public accounting of this expenditure and explain why the agency thinks it was complying with the law.”
Pruitt has defended his use of the phone booth by saying he needed to discuss classified information and conduct private conversations with the White House.
Liz Bowman, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said in a statement that the GAO recognized the need for employees to have access to secure telephone lines to handle classified information. But she acknowledged the EPA failed to notify Congress about the phone booth purchase.
“EPA is addressing GAO’s concern, with regard to congressional notification about this expense, and will be sending Congress the necessary information this week,” Bowman said.
The EPA’s inspector general also had been asked by congressional Democrats to investigate the phone booth expenditure, but halted its inquiry while the GAO did its probe.
In addition, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., is investigating Pruitt for his spending and travel habits, including his heavy expenditures on security measures for himself.
