The tab for Leavitt's 23 trips accounts for about half of the more than $1.5 million spent by Cabinet secretaries and other agency heads on leased private planes since 2001, the report from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., says. Most of the trips taken by the executive branch officials came in 2004, and often the travel was to key battleground states in that election year.
"There appears to be a pattern of routine use of chartered private jets and other aircraft by the heads of federal departments and agencies," Waxman said in a letter to the Office of Management and Budget requesting a moratorium on such travel. "This is not a wise use of taxpayer dollars, which should not be squandered on expensive travel arrangements."
While some agencies have their own planes, or even fleets, Leavitt's department does not and relies on a leased aircraft primarily reserved for use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta.
An investigation last June by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution - showing Leavitt used that leased jet mainly for 19 trips promoting the new prescription drug law - spawned Waxman's probe into the travel habits of all Cabinet members.
The Journal reported that Leavitt used the plane twice during CDC emergencies, including a call for immediate delivery of an antidote to a student in Puerto Rico exposed to radiation. A CDC spokesman told the paper Leavitt's flights had not hampered the agency's ability to do its job.
Some Cabinet secretaries traveled mainly by commercial flight, according to the letter, while others "routinely" used chartered jets.
Waxman's probe found that between 1999 and 2005, there were no chartered flights for HHS secretaries. But since Leavitt took over in January 2005, he took 19 trips through June 2006 worth $726,048 on the CDC jet.
Leavitt spokeswoman Christina Pearson says that finding was erroneous and that the department this week provided material showing other travel by agency heads and HHS secretaries from 1999 to 2005.
Overall, Pearson says, Leavitt's travel has been consistent with federal travel regulations and guidelines by the Office of Management and Budget.
"The secretary is committed to fulfilling our important health care mission in the most appropriate, efficient and effective manner possible," Pearson said in a statement.
In 2005, Leavitt was charged with "urgent objectives" such as resolving Medicare drug benefit issues, signing up millions of seniors for that program and also launching initiatives for pandemic preparedness, Pearson said.
"These pressing challenges had to be addressed within a limited period and required the secretary to participate in several events in multiple cities in a single business day," she said. "The use of leased aircraft was the most effective - and often the only - way to accomplish these important national health priorities within the compacted time frame available."
Calls to the White House Office of Management and Budget and House Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., were not returned Wednesday.
Waxman's letter suggested that some of Leavitt's travels were less than noble.
From June 2004 to October 2004, Leavitt, then the EPA administrator, made 45 public appearances in swing states to distribute EPA grants. During that time, Waxman says, Leavitt stopped in 20 different cities in nine battleground states "in order to hold award ceremonies for federal grants and to stage other publicity events."
It wasn't the first time Leavitt's travel has raised questions.
As Utah's governor in the early 1990s, he was known for combining official business trips with campaign events. In 18 months in 1993-94, Leavitt flew on a state-owned plane 108 times at a cost of more than $50,000 to taxpayers. Leavitt said at the time he was not an "in-the-office sort of guy" and needed to be outside of the Capitol doing work.
tburr@sltrib.com
---
* Tribune reporter ROBERT GEHRKE contributed to this report.
