Senate Republicans want Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to stop using government planes for his official business. They say Buttigieg wastes too many taxpayer dollars on government-owned aircraft.
“Secretary Buttigieg seems averse to traveling on the very commercial airlines that his department oversees. It’s far past time that Secretary Buttigieg travel commercially instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on private jet flights,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News.
Schmitt’s legislation would bar Buttigieg and other top Transportation Department officials from using government planes, except when it can be proven to be 5% less expensive than a commercial alternative.
Since becoming Transportation Secretary, Buttigieg has traveled to Florida, Ohio, and New Hampshire, among other places.
Fox News reports that Buttigieg’s predecessor, Elaine Chao, used the same jets on seven occasions, costing taxpayers $94,000. The Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, reportedly took federally owned planes 26 times, costing taxpayers $1.2 million.
Watchdog Complaint on Pete Buttigieg
A watchdog group reported earlier this year that Buttigieg refused to use commercial planes even when they were available. As of last fall, Buttigieg had flown on government-owned planes 18 times. The Washington Post reported that the flight costs were $41,905.20 based on Transportation Department numbers. The secretary’s office told the Washington Post that using FAA aircraft was cheaper than the cost of commercial travel on all but one trip.
“After Americans for Public Trust helped determine Secretary Buttigieg’s excessive use of taxpayer-funded government jets, we are pleased to see that his air travel is now under investigation,” APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News in February. “Everyday Americans have faced unprecedented flight cancellations and disruptions, but Buttigieg has continued to fly private, even on a Coast Guard plane and even when commercial options were readily available.”
Buttigieg’s official Twitter feed welcomed the investigation in February.
“Glad this will be reviewed independently so misleading narratives can be put to rest. Bottom line: I mostly fly on commercial flights, in economy class. And when I do use our agency’s aircraft, it’s usually a situation where doing so saves taxpayer money,” Buttigieg wrote.
The secretary’s office also told The Washington Post in February that Buttigieg usually flies commercially.
“The fact remains that he flies commercially the vast majority of the time,” Buttigieg spokeswoman Arndt said. “The exceptions have been when the Department’s career ethics officials, who have served under both Democratic and Republican administrations, determined that the use of a 9-seat FAA plane would be either more cost effective or should be approved for exceptional scheduling or security reasons.”
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, raised the issue of Buttigieg’s use of government planes in a January letter.
Grassley took issue with Buttigieg reportedly using government planes to attend what were ostensibly political functions.
“These include flights to what some describe as a list of presidential swing states, as well as a flight to New York for a radio interview and two brief meetings, one with the president of the ACLU and another with DOT employees. It is difficult to see how these trips, and perhaps others, required use of expensive non-commercial travel. For example, many commercial travel options exist between Washington and New York. Moreover, radio interviews presumably can be done by calling in to the program or picked up a phone to talk to, create questions about whether you really required the use of a private jet, especially as you call on Americans to sacrifice to reduce carbon emission,” Grassley wrote.
John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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