Pruitt claims penny-pinching agenda at EPA but spends lavishly on himself

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt publicly champions “streamlining” his agency to reduce costs. As the EPA's administrator, however, he has no problem spending extravagantly on private plane rides and first-class seats while on business trips—even racking up $90,000 during one series of trips in early June. According to records obtained by the Environmental Integrity Project, Pruitt regularly spends many times more than other officials on the same trips. A particularly egregious example: Taxpayers shelled out $36,000 for a trip on a military jet from Cincinnati to New York just so Pruitt could catch a flight to Rome, where he spent time on a private tour of the Vatican. Pruitt is also known for bringing along more political advisors than previous administrations, adding additional cost. The news of this luxury taste for travel broke the same day as Trump’s proposed 2019 budget—which cuts funding for environmental programs across the federal government.