New legislation would stop Buttigieg, DOT officials from using private jets for government travel

A Republican senator has introduced legislation meant to stop Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other top DOT officials from flying on government-owned private planes with taxpayers footing the bill.

The bill by Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri was sent to the Democrat-run Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, where it will likely languish.

Mr. Schmitt said taxpayers deserve protection from frivolous government travel expenses.

“Secretary Buttigieg seems averse to traveling on the very commercial airlines that his Department oversees,” Mr. Schmitt said. “It’s far past time that Secretary Buttigieg and senior officials travel commercially instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on private jet flights.”

The Department of Transportation did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Mr. Buttigieg flew 18 times on taxpayer-funded private planes managed by the Federal Aviation Administration late last year, according to records obtained by the government watchdog group Americans for Public Trust and first reported by Fox News.

Mr. Buttigieg is not the first high-level government official to come under scrutiny for using private flights in recent years. 

Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao used the same planes during the Trump administration, racking up $94,000 in flight costs. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign from the Trump administration for $1.2 million in taxpayer-funded private flights.

Mr. Schmitt’s legislation would prohibit the transportation secretary and members of his executive staff from flying on private aircraft owned by the FAA, unless in case of emergency or if the cost of using the private craft is at least 5% cheaper than the fare on a commercial airline. 

Each flight on a DOT-owned aircraft by Mr. Buttigieg or his executive staff would require a justification and itemization of each trip, which would include proof that the private flight was cheaper than a commercial flight. 

The government-owned aircraft would not be allowed for personal or political use, either. 

Mr. Schmitt’s bill would also make the DOT change how it calculates the cost of flights to get rid of a loophole that the agency has used to “make traveling appear cheaper.” 

The legislation would require that when comparing per-seat travel costs, the DOT cannot charge different rates to non-agency officials and must use the full cost of a flight on an FAA-managed plane. 

Mr. Schmitt said that fixing the loophole would bring “more transparency in reporting the costs of these flights.”