Bush EPA chief squeezes in last-minute overseas travel, on the taxpayers

If you thought members of Congress were the only ones taking last-minute trips at taxpayer expense just before they leave office, think again.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, who spent about $280,000 to take 11 staffers on a two-week tour of Australia last April, is capping his short tenure at the EPA with an all-expense trip to Israel and Jordan. As the Washington Post's wry columnist Al Kamen put it, Johnson is "winding up an excellent 10-day jaunt to the apparently environmentally troubled Holy Land."

Kamen reports that Johnson, "determined to continue gathering these elusive facts until the very end," attended the Eco-Cities of the Mediterranean Forum on the Dead Sea. A spokesman told the Post that Johnson "spoke with Jordanian leaders about the importance of international environmental cooperation at the Russeifah landfill in Russeifah, Jordan."

As if that were not enough, Johnson (seen above in Washington, D.C., recently unveiling the EPA's new hydrogen fuel cell cars) also met with Israeli officials, Kamen reported, "to promote sharing of information...on water security and water quality monitoring."

Maybe he needed a break. This is the same EPA chief who recently ordered his staff to work overtime speeding up regulations allowing power plants to spew out more pollution without installing new controls, according to a recent Dow Jones story. The reason: the Office of Management and Budget has asked all government agencies to meet a Nov. 1 deadline that the Bush administration has set for all regs, making it harder for a new administration to undo.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Comments

[desertrat]

These pukes have had long enough to drain our Treasury and sneak in 11th-hour regulations benefiting their donors. EPA (oxymoron) allowing MORE air pollution? What a classic example of the hypocrisy of BushCo. This tax-payer-paid trip (WITH entourage, yet) is fraud, plain and simple. Make them pay back our money!