Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has pulled out of an almost week-long trip to Israel, in the wake of ongoing complaints about his travel expenses.
“We decided to postpone; the administrator looks forward to going in the future,” EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner. Bowman did not explain why the change in plans was necessary to the Washington Post, which first reported the story Sunday.
Pruitt was expected to spend Sunday to Thursday in Jerusalem for meetings with government officials, like Israeli Environment Minister Ze’ev Elkin, and representatives from private sector firms, such as Israeli water technology companies.
He was also scheduled to make a series of site visits “to gain an understanding of Israel’s unique infrastructure and environmental challenges,” according to the Washington Post.
Proposed stops included the port of Haifa, a water recycling plant, and a toxic land remediation site.
Pruitt has come under fire this month for frequently flying first class or take military flights at the taxpayers’ expense because of “security concerns.”
He is currently being investigated by the EPA’s inspector general following reports that he and his top aides spent more than $90,000 on travel in just the first few weeks of June 2017, according to the Washington Post.
Democrats are pushing for the inspector general to expand the probe to cover how Pruitt obtains a waiver to fly first class in accordance with General Services Administration guidelines.
One of Trump’s former Cabinet members, Tom Price, stepped down from his leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services after running up a huge travel budget, and after his failure to help get an Obamacare repeal bill passed by Congress.
More recently, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has come under scrutiny for spending nine days in Europe with his wife that included just three-and-a-half days of work. Shulkin’s chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, resigned after she was found to have lied about the nature of his trip to justify sending his wife on the taxpayer’s dime.
