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HHS Secretary Tom Price Apologizes over Taxpayer-Funded Charter Flights

HeadlineSep 29, 2017

Back in the U.S., Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price apologized Thursday for chartering military aircraft to take him and his wife on overseas trips—flights that Politico reports cost taxpayers over a half-million dollars. The flights took him to cities in Liberia, Germany, Switzerland, China, Vietnam and Japan. Price reportedly spent another $400,000 in taxpayer dollars for private charter planes on domestic routes that typically had commercial flights available. The White House approved Price’s requests, which are highly unusual for a Cabinet secretary, but when news of the flights became public, President Trump said he was “not happy” about the expenses and wouldn’t rule out firing his HHS secretary. Price said Thursday he’d repay about $52,000—a small fraction of the trips’ costs to taxpayers.

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