I was walking in the night
And I saw nothing scary.
For I have never been afraid
Of anything. Not very.
Then I was deep within the woods
When, suddenly, I spied them.
I saw a pair of pale green pants
With nobody inside them!
– Dr. Suess
SCANDAL-PLAGUED ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has now spent more than $4.6 million from public coffers on security, according to documents obtained by The Intercept and Documented under the Freedom of Information Act. The amount represents a $1.1 million increase from Pruitt’s total security costs as released in another disclosure just a month ago.
Pruitt’s high spending on security has become the subject of mounting criticism and a host of official investigations: Several EPA inspector general investigations have been opened, as well as an ongoing investigation by the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee.
Records released under the Freedom of Information Act list expenditures totaling $288,610 on a range of security-related items. The EPA, according to three expense line items for April, spent a total of $2,749.62 on “tactical pants” and “tactical polos.”
Since last year, shortly after his Senate confirmation, Pruitt’s office began purchasing security-related items, including multiple vehicle leases, over $80,000 worth of radios, $700 in shoulder holsters for the radios, and a kit to break down doors, among other purchases.
An EPA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The expenses eclipsed spending by Pruitt’s predecessors. Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who served during President Barack Obama’s first term, averaged less than a third of the travel and security costs accrued by Pruitt in his first fiscal year, according to records.
In May, CNBC and other outlets reported that the mounting cost of Pruitt’s security detail had reached $3.5 million, but that didn’t include any of the cost of equipment or the most recent salary and travel expenditures.
Despite the mounting criticism of Pruitt’s high spending, his security expenses have continued to rise. Security payroll spending for his office increased in the most recent quarter by $138,373 — totaling $742,205 and almost double the cost from the same period in 2017.
EPA administrators are not typically provided with 24-hour protection, but Pruitt has received the service. The EPA defended the move by pointing to an increased number of threats. Yet Senate Democrats claim that they have reviewed an internal EPA security assessment and that no actual credible threats have been received. According to the lawmakers, among the threats considered by the EPA were protesters asking questions at events and a postcard received by Pruitt’s office that said, “Climate change is real!! We are watching you.”
Pruitt’s office spent $24,115 on a variety of tactical clothing and body armor in seven separate orders. All of the tactical gear was purchased in 2018, more than a year into Pruitt’s tenure as EPA chief. The agency spent a staggering $88,603 on radios and accessories, including holsters and travel chargers.
According to the expense records, Pruitt’s office also spent $150,900 on leasing vehicles. The list of expenditures does not break down how many vehicles were leased or any specific details about them, but the rate is considerably higher than past expenses along these lines. By contrast, when Pruitt received an upgraded Chevy Suburban with bullet-resistant seats, the one-year lease for that vehicle cost $10,200.
Excellent excellent uess of Suess—on so many levels!! ROTFLMAO!
Call your Congressperson and Senators and demand that Pruitt be investigated, prosecuted, and fired. Takes only one or two minutes. If you have a moronic RWNJ representing you in congress as I do, take the stance that Pruitt is hurting the Republican Party and President Trump—-that his “crookiness” is keeping our Mighty Leader from advancing his agenda to MAGA, and that he needs to be replaced by someone who can destroy the environment without breaking so many laws.
(And I wonder if they have bought any tactical jockstraps? Pruitt certainly needs one to carry the load he has demonstrated)
I assume these “tactical pants” have self-cleaning diapers, cos he’s gonna need them when they come for him.
Up to now I’ve been against firing Pruitt; it seemed much more damaging to IL Drumpfe’s administrone (the executive (soon, executing?) branch lost in the soup) to leave him there making them all look ridiculous and utterly, stupidly, irredeemably corrupt. The beginnings of genocide on our SW border, reacting with (1938?) Nazi-level cruelty to a situation we’ve created through our profligate use of fossil fuels* plus website climate information down the memory hole, plus Pruitt’s apparent private army of thugs (WHAT IN EARTH’S NAME DOES THE EPA NEED TO BREAK DOWN DOORS FOR????)…I admit, it’s time for him to go. The new boss won’t be any better ecologically and may be even more stealthy about the real job for any Republican EPA head, but let’s deal with that ass when they plop it in front of us. Time for another bit of chaos and defeat for the Cheeto Caligula.
* “The Dry Corridor, made up of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, has faced extreme weather resulting in an agricultural crisis that has left 3.5 million people food-insecure and seeking refuge at our southern border.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/climate-change-sparked-the-border-migration-crisis
Hidden in Jeffy’s yada-yada-yada and self-absorbed word smithing is a hint at a great truth—-the words “utterly, stupidly, irredeemably corrupt”.
Pruitt is a big litmus test for Trump. If he does NOT fire Pruitt, the most “utterly, stupidly, irredeemably corrupt” public official we have seen in generations, he will prove to Americans that he himself as POTUS is “utterly, stupidly, irredeemably corrupt”.
Have you called your representatives yet, Jeffy? As I said, takes but a minute or two, and they DO pay attention when you call, even if it’s no more than a mark on a tally of thumbs up and down. If you are close to one of their local offices, stop in and do a face-to-face with a staffer—even more effective—they will take notes as you speak.
Anarchists despise government itself, and modern conservatism is, at heart, an anarchistic philosophy. Here we see more evidence of the Radical Right’s irrational hatred of the institution, playing out through its contempt for their fiduciary responsibility for the proper husbandry of public monies.
The Republican party in general and these despicable public officials in particular simply have no understanding that the proper role and responsibility of government is to increase the quality of life of all citizens. For them, politics and government are merely a game to be rigged, with the spoils going deservedly to those most successful at exploiting whatever and whomever they can.
These people are amoral – they evidently do not have ethics. Pruitt spends whatever he likes on himself. Because he can.