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Interior, EPA chiefs: No plans to pay back charter flights

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke speaks on the Trump Administration's energy policy at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Friday, Sept. 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) ORG XMIT: DCAH105 (Andrew Harnik / AP)
By Matthew Daly Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members say they do not plan to reimburse the government for charter flights costing tens of thousands of dollars.

Representatives of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt say the trips were pre-approved by ethics officials in their respective agencies and were part of their official duties.

Inspectors general for the two agencies have opened inquiries into the taxpayer-funded travel.

Zinke said he’s taken three charter flights while in office, including a $12,375 late-night trip from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana in June. Zinke said no commercial flight was available when he planned to fly for a speech to Western governors.

Zinke also traveled by private plane in Alaska in May and to the U.S. Virgin Islands in March. The two trips cost a total of $7,000, the Interior Department said.

The EPA said four non-commercial flights taken by Pruitt were approved by ethics lawyers. Documents show Pruitt and his staff chartered a private plane for an Aug. 4 trip from Denver to Durango, Colorado, to visit the Gold King Mine, site of a spill last year. The administrator also took three flights on government-owned planes to New York, North Dakota and a roundtrip between airports in Pruitt’s native Oklahoma.

Letters released by EPA show the flights cost a total of $58,000 and were approved by the agency’s general counsel’s office.

Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for Zinke, said Tuesday all of Zinke’s travel – including a military flight with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to view wildfires in Montana in August – were approved by career officials at the department.

“As with previous (Interior) secretaries, Secretary Zinke’s travel is paid for by the government,” Swift said.

“If a reimbursement was necessary for official government travel, the EPA’s Ethics Office would have told us during the approval process and we would’ve acted accordingly,” said EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman.