The $43,000 phone booth that then-EPA administrator Scott Pruitt installed in his office may not have been worth all the headaches it caused him. 
 
 He placed only one phone call to the White House, newly released records from the agency show. It lasted five minutes. 
 
 The head of the Environmental Protection Agency resigned last month after coming under fire for how he spent tax dollars and treated his staff. He made the five-minute call on Jan. 29, according to Verizon phone logs released in response to litigation filed by the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group. 
 
 [Scott Pruitt’s $25,000 soundproof phone booth? It actually cost more like $43,000.] 
 
 The new documents do not show how many incoming calls Pruitt received in the soundproof booth, which he installed last year. In April, Pruitt testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee that he used the booth sparingly. 
 
 “It’s for confidential communications, and it’s rare,” he told Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). 
 
 
 
 Then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt at the White House in June. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) 
 
 Previously Pruitt had likened the booth to a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), which government officials use to conduct secure conversations, arguing that he needed it to discuss matters with the White House. The EPA has a SCIF at its headquarters on a different floor from the administrator’s office. 
 
 “Cabinet-level officials need to have access to secure communications,” the then-administrator testified in December. “It’s necessary for me to be able to do my job.” 
 
 EPA officials said Monday that they could not specify how many incoming calls Pruitt received from the White House in the soundproof booth. 
 
 “EPA has learned from Verizon that in order to request complete phone logs of all incoming and outgoing calls to or from these lines, EPA would need to supply Verizon with a subpoena for the records,” said EPA spokesman James Hewitt, who declined to say what the call was about. 
 
 The agency identified two phone lines associated with the booth, according to correspondence between EPA attorneys and Sierra Club lawyers. The phone numbers released through billing records for November involve calls technicians made to test the lines, EPA lawyers said. 
 
 The EPA voluntarily provided billing records for the booth through June 20, just two weeks before Pruitt resigned his post, that show no other outgoing calls from the booth. The Sierra Club’s original public-records request covered the period ending Dec. 6. 
 
 The Government Accountability Office concluded that Pruitt violated federal spending laws when he built the phone booth, because he spent more than $5,000 without providing advance notice to Congress. 
 
 While the original contract for the phone booth was slated to cost roughly $25,000, the agency ended up paying contractors an additional $18,000 to convert a closet space that could house it. That work included removing closed-circuit television equipment, pouring 55 square feet of concrete, installing a drop ceiling and patching and painting the room. 
 
 Pruitt told members of the Energy Committee in April that he did not know the project’s price tag had escalated to $43,000. “I was not aware of the approval of the $43,000, and if I had known about it . . . I would not have approved it,” he said. 
 
 A few hours later, Pruitt remarked to members of a House Appropriations subcommittee that in retrospect, the decision to install the booth “should not have been made.” 
 
 Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the Sierra Club, said in a statement that the incident underscored the kind of managers President Trump has picked to run the federal government. 
 
 “With each new revelation it becomes clearer and clearer that Donald Trump enabled the most corrupt cabinet member ever to hang on far past his expiration date,” Pierce said, adding that Pruitt’s successor continues to advance policies that benefit corporate interests. “We need leadership at the EPA that can be trusted to protect our health, not polluter profits.” 
 
 Shortly after taking the helm of the EPA, acting administrator Andrew Wheeler indicated in an interview with E&E News that he does not intend to dismantle the phone booth. He added that he would maintain a policy Pruitt instituted in the spring that requires that at least two senior EPA officials beyond the administrator sign off on any expense over $5,000. 
 
 “It’s there,” Wheeler said of the booth. “It would be expensive to tear it apart. I don’t see any sense in tearing it apart. And in this day and age, I don’t know what the assessment was for the need of it.” 
 
 Read more 
 
 Pruitt’s $25,000 phone booth cost more like $43,000, records show 
 
 Pruitt blames aides and staff for spending missteps at EPA 
 
 Scott Pruitt resigns amid ethics, management scandals ||||| The nearly $43,000 soundproof phone booth Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt had installed in his office last year violated federal spending laws, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. 
 
 In an eight-page letter to lawmakers, GAO general counsel Thomas H. Armstrong said the agency failed to notify lawmakers that it was exceeding the $5,000 limit for agency heads to furnish, redecorate or otherwise make improvements to their offices. In addition, Armstrong wrote, the agency also violated the federal Antideficiency Act, “because EPA obligated appropriated funds in a manner specifically prohibited by law.” 
 
 The EPA had argued that the almost $25,000 customized phone booth — which required painting, concrete and electrical work totaling more than $18,000 to reconfigure the small closet area where it was placed — was not part of a redecoration of Pruitt’s office and should not be subject to the $5,000 cap. 
 
 While the agency maintains other areas in its building where officials can place secure calls, and while none of Pruitt’s predecessors have had such a setup, the agency argued the privacy booth allows Pruitt to “make and receive calls to discuss sensitive information … (up to the top secret level) for the purpose of conducting agency business.” It also argued that the booth was “analogous to other functional items an employee might require to perform his job duties such as a high speed computer, high speed copier/scanner, or television.” 
 
 The GAO did not buy those arguments. Rather, Armstrong wrote the booth met the criteria to be included under federal requirements that dictate agency heads stick to a $5,000 limit in upgrading their offices. As such, he wrote, “EPA was required to notify appropriations committees of its proposed obligation.” 
 
 Armstrong made it clear Monday the decision was not a ruling on whether the EPA and Pruitt should have installed the high-priced phone booth to begin with. 
 
 “We draw no conclusions regarding whether the installation of the privacy booth was the only, or the best, way for EPA to provide a secure telephone line for the Administrator,” he wrote. “EPA’s failure to make the necessary notification is the only subject of this opinion.” 
 
 In an email Monday, EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman reiterated Armstrong’s point, saying GAO “recognized” the “need for employees to have access to a secure telephone line’ when handling sensitive information.” 
 
 “EPA is addressing GAO’s concern, with regard to congressional notification about this expense, and will be sending Congress the necessary information this week,” Bowman said, adding EPA’s general counsel had reached a different legal conclusion from GAO and did not believe the agency needed to give lawmakers advance warning about the upgrade. 
 
 Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the Republican chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the EPA, said in a statement Monday that the agency owes lawmakers an explanation. “It is critical that EPA and all federal agencies comply with notification requirements to Congress before spending tax payer dollars,” Barrasso said. “EPA must give a full public accounting of this expenditure and explain why the agency thinks it was complying with the law.” 
 
 Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), one of several lawmakers who requested the GAO review, said in a statement Monday “there are few greater examples of government waste than a $43,000 phone booth. Now we know that the purchase wasn’t just unnecessary and wasteful, but actually illegal. The American people deserve so much better than the culture of corruption, cronyism, and incompetence that is pervasive in the Trump administration and the Pruitt EPA.” 
 
 The elaborate overhaul EPA officials had to make to accommodate the privacy booth in a closet within the administrator’s suite escalated the original cost of the booth from $24,570 to $42,729, according to federal records. The Washington Post first reported the existence of the booth last September and the additional costs associated with it last month. 
 
 EPA officials, including Pruitt himself, have consistently said the administrator needs a secure area to talk to White House officials and others in the administration. Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in December, Pruitt likened the booth to a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF. 
 
 “It’s necessary for me to be able to do my job,” he told lawmakers. 
 
 No previous EPA leaders, however, have had such a setup. The agency has long maintained a SCIF on a separate floor from the administrator’s office, where officials with proper clearances can go to share information classified as secret. Pruitt’s aides have never specified what aspects of that facility might be outdated, or whether the unit now inside the administrator’s office meets the physical and technical specifications generally required for a SCIF. Even Armstrong noted Monday that the agency “did not state whether the booth has been certified” as an SCIF. 
 
 To install the booth, the EPA signed a contract last year with Acoustical Solutions, a Richmond-based company. The firm sells and installs various sound-damping and privacy products, from ceiling baffles to full-scale enclosures like the one picked by the EPA. Agency officials ordered a soundproof booth that typically is used to conduct hearing tests, but customized it at an additional expense to ensure private conversations. 
 
 “They had a lot of modifications,” Steve Snider, an acoustic sales consultant with the company, told The Post at the time. 
 
 The EPA also paid a Virginia firm $7,978 to take out closed-circuit television equipment in the room to accommodate the booth. It also released federal invoices under a Freedom of Information Act request by the left-leaning group American Oversight showing the agency hired one contractor to pour a 55-square-foot concrete block that was more than two-feet thick, at a cost of $3,470, another to install a drop ceiling for $3,361, and a third to patch and paint the room for $3,350. 
 
 Separately Monday, EPA’s inspector general released a “management alert” that detailed how Pruitt’s chief of staff Ryan Jackson had used a provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act to quickly bring on multiple political appointees and later boost their salaries. 
 
 The interim report, which stems from a broader, ongoing audit of the agency’s use of the law’s hiring authority, detailed how Jackson awarded more than a half-dozen appointees generous raises within a year of them joining the EPA. An EPA scheduling and advance director received a 72.3 percent raise last year, according to documents and agency officials, while senior counsel Sarah Greenwalt got a 67.6 percent raise. Other appointees, such as Pruitt’s speechwriter Lincoln Ferguson and senior advance associate Forrest McMurray, received at least a 25 percent salary boost in 2017. 
 
 The inspector general said Monday’s report was intended to “provide certain factual information” but “does not present any conclusions or recommendations.” 
 
 EPA officials said nearly all of the raises came after these aides had taken on additional responsibilities or had been promoted. 
 
 “Salary determinations for appointees are made by EPA’s chief of staff, White House liaison and career human resources officials,” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said, who added the agency had been “responsive” to the inspector general’s inquiries. “Salary determinations are made to avoid disparities among positions of equivalent or similar responsibilities, to the extent possible.” 
 
 Pruitt and his top aides used the law’s authority to bring appointees aboard quickly to help implement the Trump administration’s agenda. Previous administrations have employed the provision in similar ways, though they do not appear to have used it as often. 
 
 Pruitt is not the only Cabinet member to come under scrutiny for redecorating his office without notifying key congressional appropriations committees in advance. 
 
 Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has come under fire for enlisting his wife Candy’s input in upgrading his office, a move that prompted protests from the department’s chief administrative officer at the time, Helen Foster. Foster was later reassigned and has filed a whistleblower complaint. 
 
 Federal records and interviews with HUD employees indicate Candy Carson was consulted multiple times about the redecorating effort that included the purchase of a dining room set costing more than $31,000. 
 
 Last month, Carson told lawmakers when testifying about his budget he was told when he assumed his post that traditionally secretaries redecorate their offices. 
 
 “You know, I’m not really big into decorating,” Carson added. “If it were up to me, my office would probably look like a hospital waiting room. At any rate, I invited my wife in to come help me.” 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Scott Pruitt’s $25,000 soundproof phone booth? It actually cost more like $43,000. 
 
 EPA spending almost $25,000 to install a secure phone booth for Scott Pruitt 
 
 First class travel distinguishes Pruitt’s tenure 
 
 HUD Secretary Carson’s wife weighed in on redecorating effort, new emails show ||||| FILE - In this April 3, 2018, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks at a news conference in Washington. An internal government watchdog says the EPA violated federal... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this April 3, 2018, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks at a news conference in Washington. An internal government watchdog says the EPA violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for Pruitt to make private phone... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this April 3, 2018, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks at a news conference in Washington. An internal government watchdog says the EPA violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for Pruitt to make private phone... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 3, 2018, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks at a news conference in Washington. An internal government watchdog says the EPA violated federal... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — An internal government watchdog says the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for Administrator Scott Pruitt to make private phone calls in his office. 
 
 The Government Accountability Office issued its findings Monday in a letter to Senate Democrats who had requested a review of Pruitt's spending. 
 
 GAO General Counsel Thomas Armstrong determined that EPA's purchase of the booth violated federal law prohibiting agencies from spending more than $5,000 to make improvements to the offices of presidential appointees without informing Congress. Because EPA used federal money in a manner specifically prohibited by law, Armstrong said the agency also violated the Antideficiency Act, and is legally obligated to report that violation to Congress. 
 
 EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said the agency is "addressing GAO's concern, with regard to congressional notification about this expense, and will be sending Congress the necessary information this week." 
 
 EPA has said previously that Pruitt needed the privacy booth to make secure phone calls with President Donald Trump and others without fear of eavesdropping. It is among several unusual security precautions taken by Pruitt that are now under scrutiny, like his use frequent use of first-class flights to avoid unpleasant interactions with other travelers. 
 
 The Associated Press first reported in December that EPA also spent about $9,000 for an outside contractor to sweep Pruitt's office for secret listening devices and installed biometric locks. 
 
 Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, who requested the GAO review, said the finding was yet another example of the embattled EPA administrator flouting federal spending rules. 
 
 "An illegal privacy booth to conduct secret discussions with his polluter friends does nothing to help our health or environment," Udall said Monday. "Scott Pruitt is behaving like swamp emperor rather than EPA administrator — he has shown a shocking lack of regard for public health and safety, ethics and fairness. He has been a disaster, and it's past time for him to go." 
 
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 Follow Associated Press environmental reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck 
 
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 This story has been corrected to say Sen. Udall is from New Mexico.
– Scott Pruitt is no longer head of the Environmental Protection Agency, but the saga of his $43,000 phone booth isn't quite over. The Washington Post is out with one last financial tidbit courtesy of the Sierra Club, which sued the EPA to access records related to Pruitt. It learned, per Verizon phone logs, that Pruitt made a single outgoing call from the soundproof phone booth. The five-minute call was placed to the White House on Jan. 29. The EPA on Monday said it learned it couldn't provide the incoming call logs without subpoenaing Verizon, so any details on calls Pruitt may have received from the White House in the booth aren't available.