A Texas congressman gave Energy Secretary Rick Perry an opportunity to come clean Thursday about his use of charter aircraft for official government business — something Perry maintained, in line with previous reports, that he has done only once.
Rep. Joe Barton (R), in a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, told Perry it was time to “put this travel thing to bed” and get the new secretary of energy on the record about his flying habits.
Perry, a former Texas governor who maintains a residence near the Texas capital of Austin, said he flew charter only once: as part of a trip to Pennsylvania he took in late September en route to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio.
Perry also said he had, to the best of his knowledge, broken no federal laws in chartering the flight, and that he cleared the expense for the Portsmouth trip through the “appropriate sources” at DOE.
Last week, the department disclosed that, in addition to the private charter flight, Perry used government aircraft for visits to national labs and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico; the Kansas City National Security Campus; and the Hanford cleanup site in Washington state. The tab was more than $55,000, DOE said.
Perry took the Portsmouth flight the day that then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned from President Donald Trump’s Cabinet following confirmation that he racked up $1 million in air travel expenses on the government’s dime, including flights on military aircraft and charter planes.
The DOE boss testified on Capitol Hill just days after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) head of congressional affairs informed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that none of the presidentially appointed NRC commissioners had unlawfully used charter flights.
On Thursday, Barton spent about five minutes quizzing Perry about his use of charter flights. The Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee recorded the exchange as part of the record of the hearing and posted Perry’s testimony online. Barton’s questions start here. A partial transcript of the exchange, edited for grammar and clarity, follows:
Barton:
I want to put this thing about travel to bed.
How many times have you flown on charter flights as secretary of energy?
Perry:
One.
Barton:
One. And that was to Hazleton, Pa.?
Perry:
En route to Portsmouth, Ohio.
Barton:
And that was at the request of a member of Congress?
Perry:
Correct. And a member of the Senate.
Barton:
And to your knowledge, you violated no federal law?
Perry:
That is correct.
Barton:
And you fully disclosed it to the appropriate sources with DOE accounting departments and all that?
Perry:
And in addition, I might say, ran it through all the appropriate, historic ways to get that approval.
Barton:
You understand that generally, we expect — just as we have to, as members of Congress when we fly — when at all possible, we fly commercial. You understand that. And I assume you understand that, too.
Perry:
Yes sir, and I’m a good frequent flier.
Barton:
Now, I happen to know you and your sweet wife, Anita, have a place up here, but y’all have a place that you call home outside of Austin, Texas, and that on most weekends, you like to go back to Texas. Is that correct?
Perry:
Ah, that’s my goal. I can’t say that every weekend —
Barton:
I didn’t say every weekend.
Perry:
— we have some international travel that cuts into that from time to time, but my goal is to go back to Round Top Texas, as often as I can.
Barton:
Just out of curiosity, when you go back to Round Top, Texas, what airline — how do you get from Washington, D.C., to Austin, Texas? What airplane do you use?
Perry:
I make Southwest Airlines pretty happy.
Barton:
Southwest Airlines!
Perry:
Yessir.
Barton:
That’s the uh, that’s like like a low-fare, transparency airline! Yeah. So: how many times do you think you’ve used Southwest since you’ve been cabinet secretary.
Perry:
I have no idea. I’m sure somebody has a record of it.
Barton:
More than one.
Perry:
Dozens of times, sir.
Barton:
I think we’re OK if [the] energy secretary flies Southwest Airlines to Texas and flies commercial, whenever possible. But every now and then, when you’re going to Hazleton or Hannaford [sic] or Sandia or all the 17 national laboratories that are out in remote places intentionally, if it’s expedient and doesn’t violate federal law, that on occasion, you use a charter flight.
