Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) is targeting Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a bill he introduced in the Senate on Monday, demanding the transportation executive take commercial flights instead of private jets.
Schmitt said the legislation would provide more transparency from the Transportation Department and close a loophole in the department's cost-calculating policy that makes the private jet flights appear cheaper than they actually are.
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"Secretary Buttigieg seems averse to traveling on the very commercial airlines that his department oversees," Schmitt told Fox News. "It’s far past time that Secretary Buttigieg travel commercially instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on private jet flights."
The legislation does allow the secretary and other high-ranking transportation officials to use the private jet in emergency situations or if the cost of the flight is at least 5% less than the commercial flight to the same destination.
Buttigieg has used private jets operated by the Federal Aviation Administration at least 18 times after he took office in 2020, which are flights paid for by taxpayers, according to a report from Fox last December. The flights were flown on official business, and they included stops in Florida, New Hampshire, and Ohio, according to flight tracking data.
Previous transportation secretaries and high-ranking officials have also faced backlash over their use of the private jets. Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who filled the position during the Trump administration, was criticized for using the jets seven times in 2017. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price eventually resigned from his position after he used a private jet 26 times that same year.
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Buttigieg has pushed back on allegations that he uses the jets irresponsibly, claiming that he mostly flies in the economy class on commercial flights.
"When I do use our agency’s aircraft, it’s usually a situation where doing so saves taxpayer money," Buttigieg tweeted in February.