Secret Service overpaid $4 million for air travel during campaign
WASHINGTON – The Secret Service overpaid presidential committees nearly $4 million for air travel on charter flights during the 2016 campaign, the federal government’s watchdog agency reported Thursday.
The Government Accountability Office determined that the service did not consistently adhere to a long-standing policy to pay the cheapest rate of two charter options when traveling with candidates and other people under agents’ protection during the campaign season.
According to the policy, the agency pays either the lowest commercially available first-class fare or the cost of a charter flight divided by the number of passengers, whichever is cheapest. Eight months before the end of the campaign, the agency determined that it was not abiding by the policy yet did not correct its action.
The agency reimburses campaign committees for agent seats on each flight.
In all, travel expenses for the agency during the 2016 campaign totaled $58 million to support 3,236 stops. Of that,
$17.1 million was reimbursed to the four campaign committees for charter flights.
Agency reimbursements to the leading campaigns were nearly identical:
$7.3 million paid to the Trump campaign and $7.1 million to the Clinton campaign.
In its written response to the GAO, the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees Secret Service operations — said letters had been drafted to the committees requesting reimbursement for the overpaid amounts.
“The Secret Service is incredibly proud of how we operated during the 2016 campaign, and like any high performance operation we are committed to continual improvement,” the agency said in a statement Thursday. “After the issues highlighted in the report were brought to our attention, the Secret Service took immediate action to address them. As of the publishing of this report, the Secret Service has completed required corrective actions to ensure miscalculations are not repeated.”