U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette was pretty quiet during the years of investigation into the EPA’s Gold King Mine spill. She did initially call for a hearing, before we learned the extent of the EPA’s negligence in causing the disaster.
But that was during the Obama administration. Now that Trump’s in charge and Democrats are piling onto every possible scandal real and imagined, DeGette has latched onto a questionable scandal surrounding EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
According to a liberal activist group, Pruitt and his staff have spent “upwards of $150,000” on travel.
When we checked the same database of travel from March through August created by the Environmental Integrity Project, we found that Pruitt alone had spent $49,073 on air fare.
Then we checked DeGette’s congressional spending, and found her office spent $36,400 on travel from January through September (the most current record).
Yes, Pruitt and his staff will spend more. But he’s the head of a federal agency with more than 15,000 employees. DeGette is a congresswoman with 20 staffers. Pruitt’s work is international. DeGette’s work is in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District.
Democrats also want to know how many flights Pruitt flew first class. We have to wonder, with all of that travel out of DeGette’s office, how many frequent flier miles did she collect, and did she use them for additional flights, or upgrades to business or first class?