The stunning hypocrisy of Scott Pruitts request for around-the-clock bodyguards

[Judi Lynn]

Natasha Geiling
Reporter at ThinkProgress. Contact me: [e-mail]
Apr 12



A draft of the EPA’s budget calls for doubling the administrator’s security detail, while cutting programs meant to protect public health.

. . .


When it comes to the Trump administration’s plan to slash federal spending and constrict the federal bureaucracy, few agencies have attracted as much attention as the Environmental Protection Agency. The Trump administration’s proposed “skinny budget” cuts the agency’s budget by 31 percent, by far the largest cut of any federal agency. And recently leaked EPA documents outline plans to cut the agency’s workforce by 25 percent, while eliminating some 56 programs including programs aimed at monitoring and protecting public health and the environment.

One part of the agency, however, could get a boost under the Trump administration’s plan: Administrator Scott Pruitt’s personal security detail. According to a draft of the budget obtained by the Washington Post, the Trump administration has asked for 10 additional full-time security staffers to be added to the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement. Those staffers would have one job — acting as constant bodyguards for Pruitt.

Adding 10 full-time staffers to Pruitt’s security detail would more than double the size of the security detail normally afforded to EPA administrators. And that would come at a time when the Trump administration is proposing sharp cuts elsewhere in the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, with the budget calling for reductions in civil and criminal enforcement of almost 60 percent. That would leave the agency with just $4 million to investigate environmental crimes and impose penalties. And while it’s unclear how much Pruitt’s increased detail would cost the agency, estimates for the cost of U.S. Marshals dedicated to protect Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is roughly $8 million over an eight-month period.

It’s not uncommon for cabinet members to have some kind of security detail — former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, as Quartz’s Zoë Schlanger points out, was routinely guarded by a security detail during site visits or at airports. But requesting a 24/7 detail is an unprecedented request for an EPA chief.

More:
https://thinkprogress.org/scott-pruitt-epa-bodyguards-budget-32916d5ab162

[Moostache]

1. WTF???? These people astound me with their inability to feel shame...

If what you are doing as the head of the EPA is making enough people upset at you to require 24/7 secret service level protection, then you are doing it wrong.

[murielm99]

6. I don't think the threat level

against him is that high. He just wants to feel important.

[cstanleytech]

7. The threat level to many of them isnt as high even Trump as much of a fucking idiot as he is

probably doesnt face anymore danger than Obama or GWB faced and Trumps biggest protection isn't the Secret Service its that Pence would then become President and most people with common sense dont want that to ever happen.

[riversedge]

2. good grief!! Is the paranoia ever going to end.

[Me.]

3. He MUst Have Some Pretty Bad Plans

If he thinks he needs this much protection

[democratisphere]

4. Just because Scott P. is destroying the environment and potentially affecting

people's health, what does he have to fear? Scott should check with his comrade Betsy DeVos, another promoter of educational evil.

[stuffmatters]

5. DeVos is costing extra million too. I bet we'll have to pay for Gorsuch 24/7 also.

Trump installs these arch antagonists,anti-people. anti environment vessels; we're left to pay extra to protect these hateful appointments 24/7.
It's going to amount to hundreds of millions of taxpayer money wasted to protect The Trump Royal Family and The Trump Court.