GAO report details officials' taxpayer-funded flights

Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller / Win McNamee / Getty Images

The Government Accountability Office released an audit Thursday on a subject that strikes fear in the hearts of public officials - the use of taxpayer-funded private jets for personal travel. This audit focused exclusively on the travel of Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller. It was made at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, after he received an allegation that the FBI's jets were being misused. The GAO concluded the allegation was not true.

The report did reveal that the flights are very expensive, however. From fiscal years 2007 through 2011, Holder, his predecessor Michael Mukasey, and FBI Director Robert Mueller flew 659 "non-mission" flights at a cost of $11.4 million. Sixty-one percent of the flights were aboard two of the FBI's most powerful and coveted jets, the Gulfstream V, which are deployed from a secret Washington, D.C.-area facility for sensitive operations around the globe. The plane can fly 6,000 miles without refueling and can shave hours off of commercial flight times.

• Questions abound about Justice Dept. use of gov't jets

According to the GAO, a presidential directive requires the attorney general and the FBI director to fly on government aircraft for vacation and other personal travel "because of their need for special protective security measures and secure communications while in flight." The officials must reimburse the government for the full-coach fare of their flights but these reimbursements are far less than the flight operating cost. For instance, when Holder flew to New York in November, 2010, the operating cost of the flight was $15,894, but the full coach fare was only $482.80, according to the GAO calculations.

Last month, Holder flew on the FBI's Gulfstream V to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, a trip that became public knowledge when fans spotted him and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the Superdome.

Holder's spokeswoman declined to provide details about the trip, including his airfare reimbursement, the length of his stay and that of his security detail, and who, if anyone went with him. A typical flight from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans takes three hours. Under the GAO's calculation of 2010 FBI plane costs, that is roughly $15,000 for a one-way trip.

Holder has been a frequent flier to New Orleans. Most of the travel has been for major Justice Department events, such as the November 2012, news conference to announce a $4 billion dollar settlement with BP from the gulf oil spill disaster and a July 2012, news conference to announce an overhaul of the New Orleans Police Department after decades of civil rights abuses.

But he announced that he is planning more private trips to the city because his eldest daughter is a student at Tulane University. When he gave a speech at Tulane Law School last year, Holder told the crowd: "I want all of you to know that I plan to become a familiar presence here at Tulane."

The GAO report landed on Justice Department desks on the same week that furlough notices were hand-delivered to all employees due to the automatic federal budget cuts that kick in today. In 30 days, they will start finding out if the furloughs will actually happen. It also follows a previous budget crisis edict from Holder himself in January 2011 instructing employees "to limit travel, training and conference spending to only those needs that are essential," according to the news release posted on the department's website.

[ammo17]

aren`t just proud of the administration picks for his cabinet?make them pay like the other liar menendez had to pay for his jaunts on someone else`s plane.

[DC021358]

By the way, a good fact-based breakdown of Federal expenditures and budget policy basics is available online at http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258 (April 2012).

[twmat311]

This stuff happens all the way down to the local level - the question is "when / how do we possibly stop it?"

Even electing (local level) a newcomer doesn't solve it - they seem to pick up on the contamination and continue it. So "voting the bums out" just means a fresh crop of bums every few years.

[Noval53]

Will the sequester cut these needless expenses? By the way; furloughed "government" employees always get back pay later. Sweet deal they've got at taxpayer expense.

[DC021358]

That's not true. You are referring to government shutdowns, not furloughs specificially. the former is related to non-budgetary action on the part of the U.S. Congress, meaning that agencies receiving funding through Appropriations are without a budget and cannot operate. Hence the term "shutdown." Federal employees' back pay was negotaiated by U.S. Senator Bob Dole during the shutdown in the late 1990s. The current situation has to do with legislation mandating reductions in agency expenditures. There has been no talk about Federal employees--who currently have their pay frozen for three years--receiving compensation for any potential furloughs. So the two situations are frankly quite different.

[Non-Political]

"..."to limit travel, training and conference spending to only those needs that are essential,"

Ok but holder sure the hell isn't going on "offical business" to the super bowl but takes the FBI's Gulfstream?

Just WHO is going to demand a stop to this type of non-essential business useage; which by the way is essentially THEFT.

[wh0622]

Since it is Holder and he is head of DOJ it will be found to be OK. What is good for the goose is no good for us!!!!

[TJphoto]

Maybe if all Government employees were required to fly commercial, go through the TSA "song & dance", cancelled flights, long layovers, maybe our Congress would get off their fat butts and try to fix it.

[wh0622]

I doubt it. When you go to Reagan Airport look at where the congresspeople park, and what special treatment that they get while getting on an Airplane. No problems with TSA or any other junk, that is just for the common folk.