Zinke used private, military planes for travel: report
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his aides have taken multiple flights on private or military planes to go to events in his home state of Montana and between two Caribbean islands, Politico reports.
Among the flights, the Interior secretary and his staffers used a charter plane that cost $12,375 to fly from Las Vegas to Glacier Park International Airport in Montana in June.
The two agencies said they plan to reimburse the Air Force, according to a USDA spokesperson.
The report on Zinke’s flights comes amid increasing scrutiny of various travel on the part of several Cabinet officials, including those using taxpayer funds for non-commercial flights.
It was revealed that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt as well as Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price all used non-commercial travel at some point during their tenure in the Trump administration.
Price said Thursday that he would reimburse taxpayers more than $50,000, a portion of the cost of the more than $400,000 spent on the HHS chief’s private flights.
Swift said she could not to confirm to Politico whether Zinke would reimburse the government for the cost of his travel.
— Updated: 10:49 p.m.
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