EPA's Pruitt under OMB spending probe; senators urge his ouster

The White House budget office said on Wednesday it was probing whether a $43,000 soundproof phone booth installed for Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt violated the law, while dozens of Democratic senators called for him to resign over allegations of ethics lapses. Pruitt has been under fire for potential ethics lapses, including flying first class, excessive spending on security, and the rental of a room in a Washington condominium owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist. The Office of Management and Budget is reviewing whether spending on the booth installed in Pruitt’s office broke a law prohibiting federal agencies from incurring expenses in excess of available funds, known as the Anti-Deficiency Act. “We take the anti-deficiency statue very, very seriously and if (it’s) been broken, we’ll follow the rules,” Mick Mulvaney, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, told lawmakers in a House hearing. “We will enforce the law, and we’ll do so in a transparent fashion.” An OMB spokeswoman said the probe had already begun and her agency was working with the EPA on it. The EPA’s approval of the phone booth violated both the anti-deficiency law and another requiring agencies to notify Congress when they obligate more than $5,000 in federal funds to make improvements in an office of a presidential appointee, the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog, said on Monday...MORE 

This could very well be the first step to his ouster or resignation. 
Somebody in the EPA budget office or the office of Congressional Affairs was bound to know this was a problem. Was Pruitt set up or were the career officials afraid to speak up?