Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, broke the law by spending $43,000 to install a soundproof phone booth, a government watchdog concluded in a report released Monday. The Government Accountability Office found that the EPA violated the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act by spending more than $5,000 on the phone booth without notifying Congress. The EPA defended the decision to install the phone booth, which it said the administrator required to make classified phone calls to the White House. The report comes amid slowly intensifying Republican criticism of the EPA over its growing list of spending scandals. “Like maybe a monk.”The phone booth first attracted criticism from Democrats and spending watchdogs after The Washington Post reported on its construction last September.

Source: Huffington Post April 16, 2018 15:44 UTC