A $43,000 secure phone booth and a 24-hour security detail — Pruitt has taken extraordinary measures to protect himself from potential enemies by Brennan Weiss on Mar 15, 2018, 12:01 PM 
The Environmental Protection Agency spent nearly $43,000 to install a soundproof phone booth in administrator Scott Pruitt's office, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. When news of the unprecedented phone booth first surfaced last year, it was believed to have cost $25,000. At the time, Pruitt argued the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, as he called it, was "necessary for me to be able to do my job." But new invoices obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight show the phone booth actually cost taxpayers much more. This isn't the first time a questionable security measure at the EPA has drawn the ire of taxpayers and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Here are six other times Pruitt's EPA has taken a tough approach to security. SEE ALSO: $139,000 doors and private planes — 6 Trump Cabinet members under scrutiny for their lavish spending of taxpayer money DON'T MISS: Scott Pruitt came to Earth Day Texas, and the whole thing was pretty weird Pruitt limited employee access to his office  Upon assuming his position as the head of the EPA, Pruitt reportedly locked the doors to the floor where his office is located and implemented a new rule that requires agency employees to have an escort to gain entrance. Some employees, according to a New York Times report last August, said they weren't allowed to bring their cellphones with them to meetings with Pruitt. Sometimes, the Times said, they sometimes weren't allowed to take notes either. "There's a feeling of paranoia in the agency — employees feel like there's been a hostile takeover, and the guy in charge is treating them like enemies," Christopher Sellers, a professor at Stony Brook University, told the Times. An EPA spokeswoman called the allegations "rumors."
The EPA approved a 24-hour security detail to protect Pruitt  Pruitt is the first EPA chief to have round-the-clock security. Last year, as the agency planned to hire a dozen more agents to protect Pruitt, the EPA's inspector general announced he would look into whether the excess security was a necessity or a waste of taxpayer money, CNN reported at the time. But Pruitt's office argues the security is needed. "We have at least four times — four to five times the number of threats against Mr. Pruitt than we had against Ms. McCarthy," assistant inspector general Patrick Sullivan told CNN, referring to Gina McCarthy, who served as the EPA administrator during former President Barack Obama's second term.
The EPA paid for a surveillance sweep of Pruitt's office  Last March, the EPA paid $3,000 to a contractor to do a sweep of Pruitt's office to make sure there weren't any covert or illegal surveillance devices. Pruitt's spokesman, Jahan Wilcox, defended the sweep by pointing to the "unprecedented amount of threats against [Pruitt]," according to The Hill. Wilcox also said former Obama-era EPA chief Lisa Jackson had a similar security sweep while she was in office, but a former EPA employee who worked with Jackson told The Hill that she never personally requested it.
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