HHS Secretary Tom Price chartered private jets five times last week

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price took private jets on at least five separate flights last week in a stark departure from his predecessors under the Obama administration.

Price took five flights between Washington D.C., Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania between Sept. 13 and Sept. 15 for official business, according to internal HHS documents cited by Politico.

A spokesperson who said Price charters private jets when commercial flights aren’t feasible did not elaborate on why that was the case last week.

Current and former staffers told Politico that Price - who was confirmed in February - had been traveling on private jets for months, breaking precedent from the two previous HHS secretaries who flew commercially within the continental U.S.

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“I find it hard to believe he couldn’t find a suitable commercial flight to Philadelphia,” according to Walter Shaub, former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics who stepped down this summer.

“This wasteful conduct reflects disdain for the ethical principle of treating public service as a public trust,” Shaub said. “Public office isn’t supposed to come with frivolous perks at taxpayer expense.”

News of Price’s travel emerged after other members in the Trump administration came under fire for similar reasons.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is under investigation for his use of a government jet on a trip to Kentucky.

A watchdog group claimed the official trip was centered around viewing the solar eclipse near the path of totality, and Mnuchin’s wife Louise Linton was slammed online for flaunting her designer duds on the trip.

It later emerged that Mnuchin requested government planes for his honeymoon with Linton in August.

Mnuchin said he was concerned about secure communications during the trip before the jet was deemed unnecessary.

The Environmental Protection Agency also announced a review of Scott Pruitt’s trips to his home state of Oklahoma, costing more than $12,000 in taxpayer money.

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