‘US Interior chief spent over $53,000 on 3 chopper trips’
WASHINGTON (AP) — US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spent more than $53,000 on three helicopter trips this summer, including one that allowed him to return to Washington in time for a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence, newly released records have shown.
Records released by the Interior Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show Zinke spent more than $39,000 on a July helicopter tour above two national monuments in Nevada. Zinke was considering whether to recommend downsizing the two sites, which total more than one million acres in southeastern Nevada.
He also spent $8,000 on a roundtrip to an emergency management exercise in Shepherdstown, West Virginia and $6,200 to and from Yorktown, Virginia to tour a Revolutionary War battlefield and attend a boating industry roundtable.
Zinke immediately went horseback riding with Pence and other officials after returning from Virginia.
The helicopter trips were first reported by Politico.
Zinke attended the June 21 swearing-in ceremony of Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., who won a special election to replace Zinke in Congress. Gianforte earned widespread notoriety after assaulting a reporter the day before his election.
Spokesperson Heather Swift on Friday said that Zinke’s attendance at Gianforte’s swearing-in prevented him from driving to the West Virginia briefing.
Zinke used a US Park Police helicopter to fly back and forth with another Interior official to Yorktown on July 7. Zinke “did an aerial survey of a power line corridor, which was pending before the department, while traveling back from meetings in southern Virginia in order to get to a meeting with the vice president,” Swift said.
After returning to Washington, Zinke went on a horseback ride through Rock Creek Park with Pence, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Medicare administrator Seema Verma.
Zinke and other Cabinet members have faced questions about their travel after Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign amid criticism for using costly chartered planes while on government business.
Zinke has dismissed the controversy as politically motivated “bull” and said all his travel has gone through proper review.