Oops: Energy Secretary Rick Perry flew on a private jet the day before HHS chief Tom Price resigned over chartered jet-setting at taxpayer expense

  • Health secretary Tom Price resigned last week after running up more than $1 million on private government jet use
  • He said he would reimburse taxpayers $52,000 for the cost of his domestic seats
  • On Thursday, Energy Sec. Perry took a chartered jet to Ohio 
  • Perry flew from Pennsylvania to visit a Uranium facility 
  • Interior Department's IG reviewing $12,000 flight by secretary Ryan Zinke 
  • On the visit Perry was joined by Sen. Rob Portman and two lawmakers pushing to reopen Uranium enrichment plant 
  • Portman says he invited Perry to see 'importance of the work to the local economy' 

Energy Secretary Rick Perry flew aboard a chartered private plane just a day before Health and Human Services Secretary handed in his resignation over a mounting government aircraft scandal.

Perry, the former Texas governor and presidential candidate, was in Pennsylvania and Ohio late last week to tour a coal mine, tout credits to boost the struggling industry, and visit an old Uranium facility.

Shuttling between events, Perry hopped on a chartered jet Sep. 28 to get to Ohio, according to an airport management company.

The flight occured the day before fellow Cabinet member Tom Price resigned over his use of private charter flights for government business.

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KEEP DIGGING: Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry stands in front of a Dragline excavator shovel while addressing employees of the Jeddo Coal Company during a tour of the facility in Ebervale near Hazleton, Pa., on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. He then flew to Ohio on a chartered jet

KEEP DIGGING: Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry stands in front of a Dragline excavator shovel while addressing employees of the Jeddo Coal Company during a tour of the facility in Ebervale near Hazleton, Pa., on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. He then flew to Ohio on a chartered jet

Price's jet scandal had already been in the media for day, and there was already widespread speculation he wouldn't survive the week as a member of the Trump administration.

It had already been revealed that his domestic flight aboard government aircraft had topped $400,000. Then on the day Perry took his flight, Politico reported that Price's jet tab to taxpayers topped $1 million when military flights to Europe were factored in.

President Trump had already said he was 'not happy' with the situation. 

Perry took the private plane from Hazleton Regional Airport in Pennsylvania to the Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport in southern Ohio on Sept. 28, PMH Aviation, the company that runs the Portsmouth airport, said on Wednesday. 

The purpose of his trip was to visit a uranium facility in Piketon, Ohio, according to the Energy Department.

A receptionist at the company declined to answer questions about the cost of the flight.

The only private jet to land at Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport last Thursday belonged to Dixie Capital Corp, a Richmond, Virginia-based charter company, according to data from the Flightaware website. Dixie confirmed it owned the plane, but declined to comment on Perry or say how much the trip cost.

A spokeswoman for Perry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price  (L) receives a flu shot administered by registered nurse Sharon Walsh-Bonadies (R) during an event on the importance of annual influenza prevention, at the National Press Club, on Sept. 28, the day before he resigned

Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price (L) receives a flu shot administered by registered nurse Sharon Walsh-Bonadies (R) during an event on the importance of annual influenza prevention, at the National Press Club, on Sept. 28, the day before he resigned

President Donald Trump called HHS Secretary Tom Price a 'very fine man' and said he would make a decision on his status Friday, hours before Price's resignation was announced

President Donald Trump called HHS Secretary Tom Price a 'very fine man' and said he would make a decision on his status Friday, hours before Price's resignation was announced

Perry was joined in Ohio by U.S. Senator Rob Portman and two U.S. representatives from the state to visit the decommissioned uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, according to a statement last week by the senator's office. Local officials have been lobbying the government to reopen the facility.

During his stop in Pennsylvania, Perry toured a coal mine.

No commercial airlines serve Hazleton, but airports with commercial routes in Scranton and Allentown, Pennsylvania, are each an hour away.

Price resigned last week as U.S. health and human services secretary and promised to repay the government for some $52,000 worth of travel including private flights, after Politico and other media reported on his use of charters.

On Monday, the watchdog agency overseeing the U.S. Interior Department said it had opened an investigation into the use of charter flights by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who took a recent private flight from Las Vegas to Kalispell, Montana, that cost $12,000.

Portman touted the trip on his Senate web site, saying, 'I was proud to show Secretary Perry the top-notch infrastructure and highly-skilled workforce at Piketon’s biggest employer—the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.'

He continued: 'For decades, the workers here provided our military and our energy sector with critical natural resources, including enriched uranium for our country’s nuclear defense system. It now employs nearly 2,000 Ohioans through the cleanup effort, which, when finished, will provide the infrastructure and resources to employ thousands more.'

Portman wasn't on the flight. 

PLANE CRAZY: The Interior Department's inspector general is reviewing a $12,000 flight by Interior secretary Ryan Zinke

PLANE CRAZY: The Interior Department's inspector general is reviewing a $12,000 flight by Interior secretary Ryan Zinke

While in Pennsylvania, Perry met employees of the Jeddo Coal Company in Ebervale, near Hazleton. He visited the strip mining operation with Congressman Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA), and toured the Rare Earth Elements extraction project site, a coal reclamation site, and an anthracite mining operation, the Associated Press reported.

Perry was one of a raft of candidates who ran for president in 2012 and 2016. He famously couldn't remember during a 2011 televised debate the names of the three cabinet agencies he wanted to abolish, saying 'Oops' when he couldn't recall them all. The Energy Department was the agency he couldn't recall.