The Environmental Protection Agency is spending nearly $25,000 to construct a secure, soundproof communications booth in the office of Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to government contracting records.
The agency signed a $24,570 contract earlier this summer with Acoustical Solutions, a Richmond-based company, for a “privacy booth for the administrator.” The company sells and installs an array of sound-dampening and privacy products, from ceiling baffles to full-scale enclosures like the one purchased by the EPA. The project’s scheduled completion date is Oct. 9, according to the contract.
Typically, such soundproof booths are used to conduct hearing tests. But the EPA sought a customized version — one that eventually would cost several times more than a typical model — that Pruitt can use to communicate privately.
The agency is arguing that they need this for the sake of privacy but they already have a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) on site, just like other agencies, so the reason for this extra level of security is somewhat puzzling.
It kind of makes you wonder just what Pruitt is saying that he is so desperate to keep quiet.
And of course who he is saying it to.
On site
ReplyDeleteHe has increased his security detail to 18 to be there round the clock. Some of them have been pulled from their regular jobs of investigating environmental infractions. Bonus! And like Tom Price he likes using charter aircraft. Paranoid, secretive and easy with the taxpayers dime, drain the swamp?
ReplyDeleteSo he has a cone of silence? Does he think he's the Chief from Get Smart?
ReplyDeleteI think we sane people must have a different definition of swamp.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the congressional investigation? Pruitt needs to be reminded exactly who he is working for, the American public, not corporations.
ReplyDeleteJust another guy that are using taxpayer money for charter flights, now his secret booth, so much for draining the swamp. What a joke.
Wow he has tiny hands for such a big job. Silence will not hide actions. And either this Russian sympathizing operative is ignorant or corrupt. WHICH IS IT? republicans? Americans are listening and watching and it aint pretty !!! sob pos scum bucket skank traitor swamp sucking lousy actors sewer club is doomed.
ReplyDeleteThe weasel needs silence when lifting pollution bans and selling our national parks and protected lands to Russia for uranium. The whole stinken swamp of trump nose pickers are corrupt.
ReplyDeleteI thought DJT was supposed to drain the swamp. Instead he's just brought in more expensive parasites.
ReplyDeleteGeorgiaPeach
It is hard to decide which of Trump's cabinet choices is the worst. They are all totally awful, doing exactly the opposite of what the job is really to do --- they are taking away rights, protections, etc. from us instead of protecting us. Not a single one of them is qualified or decent. Together the harm they are inflicting is every bit as equal to what HE is doing on his own. Combined it is unimaginable how much worse off the country is with these people running things.
ReplyDeleteHe is having trouble with his "Cone of Silence"!
ReplyDeleteHe is having trouble with his "Cone of silence"!
ReplyDeleteHere’s All The Expensive Nonsense Trump’s EPA Chief Is Wasting Your Taxes On
ReplyDeleteEnvironmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt — a climate change denier who is pushing for sweeping budget cuts at the agency — apparently has no qualms about loosely spending some of that budget on himself.
In his first seven months on the job, the former Oklahoma attorney general has racked up a questionable tab that includes non-commercial airfare, an unprecedented security detail and a soundproof booth for making confidential phone calls.
CBS News reported Wednesday that Pruitt and other EPA staff took a private flight July 27 from Tulsa to Guymon, Oklahoma, where Pruitt spoke to farmers about his plans to nix the Obama administration’s Waters of the United States rule. The flight, booked by the Interior Department as part of an inter-agency program, later took the group to Oklahoma City. The total cost: $14,285.71.
In all, Pruitt’s non-commercial airfare has cost taxpayers more than $58,000, according to reports by CBS and The Washington Post. That includes a $36,068.50 flight aboard a military jet to and from Cincinnati, where he joined President Donald Trump for a speech on infrastructure, and a $5,719.58 chartered flight from Denver to Durango, Colorado, to visit the Gold King Mine, where two years earlier the EPA caused a wastewater spill that polluted waterways in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
During the visit to Colorado, Pruitt blasted the Obama administration for failing to protect local communities and the environment.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-pruitt-spending-epa_us_59cc2a95e4b05063fe0ef9b3?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Makes you wonder if he's into those talk-dirty-to-me phone sites. Or porn. With this cabinet of greedy losers, anything is possible.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump blocks Congressmen from traveling to Puerto Rico so they can’t see how badly he’s blown it
ReplyDelete...In an incredible development, Donald Trump is blocking members of the House and Senate from being able to travel to Puerto Rico on military vessels. His official reason is that he doesn’t want it getting in the way of the supplies that are being delivered by those vessels. But in the context of just how slowly and tepidly he’s been rolling out those supply deliveries, his excuse is utter nonsense – particularly when you consider that Trump is now planning to obtrusively visit the island himself.
Ten members of Congress were planning to travel to the island this week, but Trump has put a stop to it, according to an NBC News report (link).
http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/blocks-pr-trump/5167/
Price on thin ice
ReplyDeleteThe uproar over Price's charter travel is real, and it's not going away. Democrats smell blood. Republicans will have a hard time ignoring $400,000 in luxury travel. Trump has just suffered a stinging legislative defeat, and Trump loves a scapegoat.
https://www.axios.com/price-on-thin-ice-2490539077.html
U.S. Virgin Islands' economy "evaporated overnight"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.axios.com/u-s-virgin-islands-economy-evaporated-overnight-2490502875.html
General behind Katrina relief criticizes Puerto Rico response
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/general-who-led-katrina-response-criticizes-puerto-rico-efforts
Despite intense recovery efforts for the past week, upwards of one million Puerto Ricans remain without access to clean drinking water and 97% of the island is without power. There are 3.4 million American citizens living in Puerto Rico, and many are struggling for survival. Because communications have been cut off, and rescue workers still can't reach far flung areas, the full scale of the devastation is still not clear.
ReplyDelete"This is like in war: You work with what you have," Carlos Gómez-Marcial, the emergency room director at Centro Medico in San Juan, the main hospital on the island, told the N.Y. Times.
https://www.axios.com/a-week-after-maria-puerto-rico-still-desperate-for-water-supplies-2490245892.html
The return of Sarah Palin: The former Alaska governor enjoyed her rally for Judge Moore so much she's told associates she'd be happy to team up again with this group through 2018.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.axios.com/the-gop-anti-establishments-early-2018-playbook-2490172326.html
OT Strange:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/09/28/republican_senator_thad_cochran_not_in_hospital_despite_trump_claim.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/09/the_supreme_court_is_poised_to_deal_a_devastating_blow_to_minimum_wage_workers.html
ReplyDelete$ukoch^
Oh, you know those "Get Smart" Cone of Silence jokes won't be far behind.
ReplyDeletehttp://usanewtoday.com/2017/09/21/freelance-journalist-writes-ice-cold-open-letter-trump-officially-breaking-internet/
ReplyDelete"my father founded the criminal divison of the EPA, and was the senior environmental prosecutor in the country until 2014,"
US health secretary says will repay travel on private planes
ReplyDeleteU.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on Thursday that he would write a check to the government to cover the cost of his travel on private charter planes.
“Today, I will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes,” Price said in a statement. “The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he was “not happy” with reports that Price, as secretary, had taken at least two dozen private charter flights since May. Politico, which first reported on the flights, said the tab for U.S. taxpayers had been over $400,000.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/us-health-secretary-says-will-repay-travel-on-private-planes/
But he's only paying for HIS SEAT!
DeleteHe kinda neglects to mention that.
So he's not reimbursing for the full amount.
After Getting Busted Chartering Private Jets, Tom Price To Pay Taxpayers Back $400,000
ReplyDeleteAfter he got busted wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on private jets, HHS Secretary Tom Price announced that he would be paying the money back.…
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/09/28/busted-chartering-private-jets-tom-price-pay-taxpayers-400000.html
No, he's not going to pay back $400,000. He's only going to pay for HIS seat.
Delete
ReplyDeleteA House Republican explains why deficits don’t matter anymore
“It’s a great talking point when you have an administration that’s Democrat-led.”
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/28/16378854/mark-walker-deficit
what the hell is this for?? the epa needs privacy??? what the f#$@!%$^ is going on in there? the goverment of this country needs to be pulled apart and looked at very closely. why are they wasting our money on crap like this and there are people dying in Florida and Puerto Rico and that orange ass@&%^$#. in the White House (does not have a solid gold toilet so it's a dump-does not anything about taste)-spent days twiwwering about football players using their rights of freedom of speech. God, what a perfect waste of time, energy and money sitting in the White House. its time to get him gone.
ReplyDeleteThere is already a sound-proof booth one floor up!
ReplyDelete