EPA’s Pruitt Racked Up $3.1 Million Bill for Security in First Year
- Cost to protect Scott Pruitt higher than other administrators
- Security needed to be ramped up amid escalating theats: EPA
Scott Pruitt
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
U.S. taxpayers spent at least $3.1 million guarding EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt around the clock during his first year on the job, according to newly released records.
That price tag -- spent on protective agents’ pay and travel during 2017 -- is higher than the security cost for Pruitt’s immediate predecessors at the Environmental Protection Agency. Taxpayers spent $1.4 million during 2009 on pay and travel for the protective detail assigned to Administrator Lisa Jackson, who served under former President Barack Obama. Gina McCarthy, who was Obama’s second EPA administrator, racked up a $1.9 million security bill during her first full year on the job, according to the documents, which were released by the agency on Friday.