Former EPA chief's Italy trip cost thousands more than previously reported
Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt's lavish 2017 taxpayer-funded trip to Italy cost thousands of dollars more than previously reported, internal agency documents show.
The trip to Rome and the Vatican — which included first-class travel for Pruitt and his close aides, around-the-clock security and stays at a five-star hotel for all attending staff — ended up costing taxpayers $164,200, roughly 37 percent more than previously reported.
he agency released the figure, which included $10,067 for a motorcade and $5,841 in hotel rooms for the drivers at the five-star Baglioni Hotel Regina in Rome, as part of a Freedom of Information Act request to the Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental watchdog group.
Previous reports estimated Pruitt's travel costs for the trip to be at least $120,000, which included the administrator's $7,003 round-trip flight. That price tag didn't include the $36,068 military flight he took from Washington to New York City before getting on a commercial airline.
Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, compared the costs to the number of regulatory cuts undertaken by the EPA under the Trump administration.
“These new details about Scott Pruitt’s mismanagement and runaway spending show that he was abusing taxpayers even as he damaged their health by rolling back environmental regulations,” Schaeffer argued.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/405179-former-epa-chiefs-italian-trip-cost-thousands-more-than-previously
