Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt spent more than $105,000 on first-class flights in his first year, according to documents the EPA provided Tuesday night to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., asked the EPA in January for details on Pruitt’s frequent use of first-class travel, including how Pruitt has been able to obtain waivers to travel first class instead of coach.
The most expensive travel detailed to Congress is a $17,631 four-day trip in December to Morocco, where Pruitt promoted natural gas. That trip included a $500 overnight stay in Paris on the way to Morocco, which the EPA says was required by weather delays.
The Daily Beast, Politico and the Washington Post received the documents and reported on their details.
The EPA inspector general is investigating Pruitt’s Morocco trip, which critics have said was inappropriate because the EPA plays no formal role in overseeing natural gas exports. Those matters fall under the jurisdiction of the Energy Department or Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The inspector general is also investigating Pruitt for his use of private and military flights and his frequent travel as administrator to his home state of Oklahoma, where he served as attorney general.
The documents released to the Oversight Committee do not include expenses for Pruitt's aides and personal security detail. Those costs can be significant.
A watchdog group earlier Tuesday released documents showing the EPA spent nearly $31,000 on Pruitt’s security detail during a June trip to Italy, bringing the total to more than $80,000.
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 to sit in 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, and Pruitt is not involved with the decision.
Jahan Wilcox, an EPA spokesman, says Pruitt's travel expenses are similar to former EPA administrators. He noted that former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Pruitt's predecessor during the Obama administration, also incurred "numerous" security-related travel expenses abroad. He said McCarthy and her security detail spent $68,382 traveling to Ghana in 2016 and $45,139 to Peru the same year.
“The double standard couldn’t be more clear: under Barack Obama’s EPA the media chose not to report on expenditures to protect the EPA administrator for international travel or the costs of their trips, but under the Trump administration the costs to protect our government officials is somehow scandalous," Wilcox told the Washington Examiner.
Pruitt this month vowed to curtail his frequent first-class travel, saying he will fly coach if threats to his security can be managed.
Pruitt is the first EPA administrator to have a 24-hour security detail.
