Perry’s staff defends air travel amid inquiry
Energy department estimates it spent more than $56,000 on non-commercial travel.
The energy secretary and exgovernor has spent more than $56,000 on non-commercial flights, department says.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry is defending tens of thousands of dollars spent on flights aboard charter and government aircraft, as a congressional inquiry into the travel expenditures of members of the Trump administration widens.
In May, the former governor and members of his staff flew aboard a chartered Gulfstream jet to a Department of Energy event in Kansas City at a cost of up to $35,000, according to documents the Department of Energy sent the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week.
Along with three other flights aboard government aircraft, the Department of Energy estimates it has spent more than $56,000 on non-commercial travel for the secretary and his staff.
“The Department of Energy strictly follows both government-wide and internal DOE travel regulations and policy,” a spokeswoman said. “The secretary travels almost exclusively on commercial aircraft.”
On the surface, Perry’s travel budget seems modest in comparison to former Health Secretary Tom Price, who resigned last month following disclosures that he’d run up a more than a $500,000 bill on charter flights and other air travel since the Trump administration took office in January.
In a letter to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly last month, House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Ranking Member Elijah Cumming, D-Md., reminded the administration Cabinet members should travel “‘by the most expeditious means of transportation practicable’ and ‘commensurate with the nature and purpose of the (employee’s) duties,’ and by no means should include personal use.”
In a memo to the White House in May, Perry’s chief of staff, Brian McCormack, explained the Gulfstream flight to Kansas City as a necessity.
“I have determined other modes of transportation, including scheduled airline flights, will not meet the secretary’s schedule requirements,” he wrote.
The round trip flight traveled from Reagan National Airport in Washington to the New Century AirCenter in New Century, Kansas on May 17, for a “Small Business Forum & Expo” hosted by the Energy Department, as well as to tour a facility operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration in Kansas City.
The New Century airport is located about 45 minutes drive from the Kansas City International Airport, where both American Airlines and Southwest Airlines fly non-stop from Reagan National.