Posted on 09/30/2017 4:11:18 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Travel for Trump administration officials on government-owned, rented, leased, or chartered aircraft, will now require prior approval from White House chief of staff John Kelly, after it was revealed that multiple senior officials in the Trump Cabinet were using private jets and military aircraft to conduct business on the taxpayers' dime.
Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, revealed this point in a letter he sent out Friday reminding staff of administrative policies regarding travel after President Trump accepted Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's resignation.
"Beyond the law and formal policy, departments and agencies should recognize that we are public servants," he wrote. "Every penny we spend comes from the taxpayer. We thus owe it to the taxpayer to work as hard managing that money wisely as the taxpayer must do to earn it in the first place."
"Therefore, all travel on Government-owned, rented, leased, or chartered aircraft, except space available travel and travel to meet mission requirements (as those situations are defined in Circular A-126) shall require prior approval from the White House Chief of Staff," he added.
"Full-time required use travelers are exempted from the requirement," the letter adds.
Price's resignation came after it was revealed he used nearly $1 million in taxpayer dollars to pay for travel on private jets and military aircraft over the past few months. Price has said he will reimburse the government for his seats on these flights – totaling approximately $52,000. Other Cabinet officials are facing similar scrutiny over their use of private or military aircraft to travel instead of commercial flights, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
When will the government go after all the similar abuses in the Obama administration?
Betsy DeVos has the best solution. She owns her own private plane and doesn’t bill the government for its use.
The swamp is seemingly deeper and wider than ever.
Exactly
This isn’t the Obama administration, this is Tom Price living high off the hog on the taxpayers dime. You comment reeks of slightly condoning bad behavior by justifying bad behavior. That doesn’t fly with conservatives. This is the Trump administration and it was dealt with properly. The Obama years are over
nice to see that administration puts in an internal control so it won’t happen again... tell trump is a business man.
That’s what pi$$e$ me off. The gross abuse by the dims is never mentioned.
That and always mentioning the repub ‘offender’ is an millionaire.
What plane did Bob Menendez and friends use on his jaunts to his teen sex getaways in Dominican Republic.
When she was House Speaker, she was required use. As a part of the succession plan she has to use government aircraft. The question arose because she was flying with a huge entourage and her staff kept requesting large aircraft or aircraft that could make the trip in one stop. The child molester, Denny Hastert, used a small jet but he was going a short distance.
And I think it was MSNBC who put her name in the mix of administration officials wasting money on private jets. Obviously they didn't do their homework ahead of time.
Unless they are high level government officials, there is no reason they can’t fly coach, just like government peons who travel on official business.
For a high-level official who might be recognized by members of the public, the issue is security.
For a peon, security is not such a big deal.
Not at all.
This kind of flagrant disregard of good business/management practices, justifiable conduct and lack of concern for the way taxpayer money is spent has been common among politicians and bureaucrats since they first got their hands on taxpayer money.
None of it is justified or should be excused.
I agree with you that this was dealt with properly.
My concern is that uproar about this abuse seems to be selective.
Where was/is similar concern about the flagrant and egregious abuses in the Obama (and other) administrations?
Let's hold every last politician and bureaucrat to this higher standard of conduct.
Semper Fi, brother.
As I recall they also demanded that the aircraft be stocked with wine and other expensive "refreshments".
I wonder if they will take away the Lear Jet used by the FBI’S BAU?
I fly out of DC Reagan a lot; prob. the majority of first class seats are occupied by federal employees. When he was SecDef, Rumsfeld had a policy which authorized appointees above a certain level, and there were a lot of them, to buy and fly first class on the taxpayer - I found and find this to be ridiculous, let them fly coach and upgrade on their own miles, if they wish. Of all people, Price should have known from his years in Congress that someone in his position, HHS, isn’t in the line of succession and doesn’t need or warrant a remarkably expensive private jet, especially for lunch with his son. I can see it for those in the Presidential succession or the JCS, but not those below. Beyond them, if the concern is over the safety aspect of commercial aviation, then we are all in trouble. Trump did the right thing in firing Price.
Oh. Nancy pelosi was using military transports for her family And she was criticizing Price this week. Making statements.
No one remembers that.
While I agree that fleecing the taxpayer must cease, why would we agree that Kelly would be the individual to approve such a request for “permission”? We’ve been told by many that he is not to be trusted, he is isolating our President Trump. Why would we agree to give such a man so much authority. This is neither my yea or nae, just a question.
When I flew in uniform as a colonel, I was repeatedly offered upgrades to first c!ass. The guidance was clear: the optics were unacceptable and we were not too accept. I had to quietly counsel an AF LT flying in blues after a flight on which she bad accepted the upgrade. Apparently she was in the 10% who never gets the word...
"by Robert Longley Updated September 04, 2017 The President of the United States and the Vice President are not the only non-military U.S. government officials who regularly fly on aircraft (Air Force One and Two) owned and operated by the U.S. government at the cost of taxpayers. The U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) not only fly - for business and pleasure -- on aircraft owned and operated by the Department of Justice; they are required to do so by executive branch policy."
And...
"By JAKE SHERMAN 10/30/2015 05:07 PM EDT House Speaker Paul Ryan will continue John Boehner's self-imposed prohibition on using government-chartered, private jets. As second in line to the presidency, the speaker of the House is allowed use of an Air Force jet to travel around the country. When Boehner (R-Ohio) took the speakership in 2011, he vowed to not use the jet. On Friday, Ryan's office told POLITICO that he would not use the jet, either. Boehner's prohibition did not extend to overseas travel. Nancy Pelosi caught flak when, as speaker, she flew home to San Francisco on a military airplane. That prompted Boehner's decision to impose the ban."
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