Congressional investigators report that the feds spent $1.5 million over four years just to fly a plane to the main airport in Washington, D.C., in order to put that aircraft into position to then fly the Attorney General and FBI Director on both official and private trips.
Overall, the tab was $11.4 million for executive jet flights from 2007-2011 for the Attorney General and FBI Director, spanning both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who requested the report, said it showed the planes were being used too often for travel by top officials, instead of for counterterrorism efforts as claimed by the Justice Department.
“I’m really interested in how the Attorney General can claim that federal law enforcement agents will be cut, knowing that over the last 5 years the Department has allowed for millions of dollars to be spent on personal travel," Grassley said in a statement.
“The hypocrisy from the administration when they say that ‘the cuts apply to you, but not to me’ is hard to believe," Grassley added.
As for the travel between 2007-2011 by the Attorneys General and the FBI Director, the Government Accountability Office found "the Attorneys General and the FBI Director collectively took 74 percent (490 out of 659) of all of their flights for business purposes, such as conferences, meetings, and field office visits; 24 percent (158 out of 659) of all flights for personal reasons; and 2 percent (11 out of 659) for a combination of business purposes and personal reasons."
Because of their position, the Attorney General and FBI Director don't usually use commercial airplanes for travel, but that only changed in recent years for the FBI Director; they are required to reimburse Uncle Sam the "applicable full coach fare" for their trips, which is clearly less than it costs to run the federal jet.
The GAO ran summarized that travel this way:
For example, a personal trip taken by the Attorney General to New York in November, 2010 using the FBI’s Gulfstream V had an estimated flight cost of $15,894, but the reimbursement at the equivalent commercial fare was $420.80. The FBI’s flight data showed that the FBI Director took a total of 10 trips aboard FBI aircraft that required reimbursement from fiscal years 2007 through 2011, and he reimbursed the equivalent commercial fare for these flights totaling $4,556 in equivalent commercial cost, while 88 of the Attorney General’s trips required reimbursements during the same time period, and he reimbursed the equivalent commercial fare for these flights totaling $46,982."
One part of this report that really stands out is that the executive jets used by the FBI are not on standby in Washington, D.C. for the use of the Attorney General or FBI Director; instead, the planes are flown in to Washington from a secret facility that is run by the federal government.
That means, instead of the Attorney General and FBI Director just driving across the river to the Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) on a moment's notice, they have to wait for the plane to fly to DCA before their own trip can start.
Those trips to "position" the plane for the use of the Attorney General and FBI Director - and then the flight back to the secret facility - ran up a cost of $1.5 million.
"According to the FBI," the GAO report stated, "these positioning flights are necessary because, among other things, the location where the FBI maintains the aircraft is an unmarked covert facility, and at times, the FBI initiates sensitive flight operations from this site."
“It seems to me that there has to be a better way than flying a jet a few miles to pick up the Attorney General and the FBI Director,” said Sen. Grassley.
You can read the entire report here.
