Documents released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through a Freedom of Information Act request show EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s spent nearly double what his predecessors did for security in their first three months in office.
E and E News reported this week Pruitt’s security detail spent substantially more than Lisa Jackson and Gina McCarthy when they were head of the giant agency.
Compensation came to more than $617,000 while travel costs for the security detail came to more than $215,000. The overall EPA security expenditure came to $832,735.40 for about the first quarter while Pruitt, the former Oklahoma Attorney General ran the EPA.
During the same time period, Lisa Jackson’s personal security cost was more than $423,000 while Gina McCarthy’s was more than $465,000.
“Security is something to be taken very seriously,” said EPA spokeswoman Amy Graham in an interview with E and E News. “We leave decisions about how to best protect the administrator up to the experts in charge of his security detail.”
It was in April when Pruitt requested 10 additional full-time security guards so he would have a round-the-clock detail for protection.