0:25
- ABC News
- March 14, 2018
EPA spent $43,000 on 'secure phone booth'
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox called the expenditures in the documents "old news."
The EPA's inspector general told that committee that it plans to look into the spending on the soundproof booth but that review is now being conducted by the Government Accountability Office.
The inspector general is also conducting a review of Pruitt's travel costs that is expected to be complete later this year.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, who sits on that chamber’s Environment and Public Works committee, has also asked Pruitt for more information about the contract to sweep his office for bugs. Whitehouse wrote in a letter that the company used to conduct the sweep has a connection to the head of Pruitt's security detail and the senator wants more information on whether the contract was awarded through the proper procedure.
There are also questions about Trump administration cabinet officials’ spending on office decorations, such as a $31,000 dining set for the office of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
The documents released by American Oversight on Wednesday also show that the EPA spent $2,963 on a standing desk for Pruitt. In one of the emails a staffer from the Office of the Administrator wrote that cheaper desks were available but they were made overseas and agencies are required to buy American-made products under the Buy America Act.
Cabinet secretaries are limited to $5,000 to spend to redecorate their office during the transition to the new administration, according to federal law. Any spending higher than that has to be reported to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
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