Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is vowing to curtail his frequent first class travel, saying he will fly coach going forward if threats to his security can be managed.
Pruitt has deflected criticism of his travel habits by saying he faces “unprecedented” security threats from taunting travelers, which has prompted EPA career security staff to grant him waivers before flights to sit in first class.
“What I’ve told them going forward is this: There is a change occurring, you’re going to accommodate the security threats as they exist, you’re going to accommodate those in all ways, alternate ways, up to and including flying coach, and that is what’s going to happen on my very next flight,” Pruitt told CBS News, in excerpts of an interview published Thursday. “So those things are happening right away.”
Pruitt’s travel has been heavily scrutinized in recent weeks after the Washington Post reported the EPA administrator and his top aides spent more than $90,000 on travel in just the first few weeks of June.
Democrats, and even Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, have questioned Pruitt and the EPA over how has obtained waivers to fly first class.
An EPA official previously told the Washington Examiner the agency submits the same security-related waiver for Pruitt to fly first class before each trip.
The waiver has to be approved by multiple EPA officials before every trip.
The federal General Services Administration requires agencies’ oversight staff to approve first-class travel “on a trip-by-trip basis … unless the traveler has an up-to-date documented disability or special need.”
Pruitt, in the interview with CBS, said he has received “unprecedented threats” from travelers on flights and in airports.
“There have been incidents on planes, there have been incidents in airports and those incidents occurred and they were of different types,” he said. “What I wanted to really convey is these threats have been unprecedented from the very beginning and the quantity and type are unprecedented, so I have a responsibility to listen to the individuals charged with the obligation to keep me safe and the employees of the agency safe, and I listen to them.”
Democrats earlier this month asked the EPA’s inspector general to expand an existing probe of Pruitt’s travel to include questioning related to his first class flights.
The investigation currently covers Pruitt’s frequent travel to and from his home state of Oklahoma and his use of private and government planes.
Lawmakers want to understand how the EPA determined flying coach is a security risk and whether other EPA political appointees have been granted exceptions.
