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The government wasted at least $341,000 on travel by ousted Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, including booking charter flights without considering cheaper scheduled airlines, an agency watchdog said Friday. The HHS inspector general’s long-awaited report chastised the department for flouting federal travel rules, which require officials to book trips in the most cost-efficient way for taxpayers. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/13)

The HHS Inspector General report finds that Price violated federal regulations in taking the trips and “improperly used federal funds.” Of 21 trips reviewed by the IG, the report finds that 20 did not comply with federal regulations. For example, HHS did not compare the cost of flying on commercial airlines before using private aircraft, the report finds. (Sullivan, 7/13)

The total cost of the 21 trips was $1.2 million, the report said. The most expensive trips were an eight-day visit to Asia on military aircraft, which cost $432,400; a weeklong visit to Africa and Europe on military planes, which cost $234,400; and a charter flight from Seattle to Washington, D.C., which cost $121,500. Mr. Price took chartered aircraft to many cities in the United States when lower-cost commercial flights were available, Mr. Levinson said. He found that Mr. Price had spent $14,955 on a round-trip charter flight between Washington and Philadelphia. (Pear, 7/13)

In one three-day trip from Washington, D.C., that included stops in San Diego, Salt Lake City and Aspen, Colo., the HHS overpaid by $36,313 — even though Price's itinerary included a total of less than four hours of official engagements. Price announced last fall that he would reimburse U.S. taxpayers for chartering private planes for official travel, as NPR reported. (Chappell, 7/13)

Justifications for using charter flights were sometimes flimsy, the report concluded. In one case, Mr. Price’s office cited the possibility of a meeting at the White House on the morning of a scheduled trip to Nashville. Two days before the event, it was clear the meeting wouldn’t take place. The office chartered the flight anyway, at a cost of $17,760, the report said. For other trips, Dr. Price’s staff cited schedule constraints that could have been adjusted to enable him to fly commercial, the inspector general concluded. (Armour and Radnofsky, 7/13)

A spokesman for Price released a statement Friday noting that the former secretary was not interviewed by the inspector general’s office and highlighted Hargan’s remark that none of the travel was “unauthorized.” “Media coverage inaccurately states the report takes issue with Dr. Price’s actions,” the statement said. “In fact, the report addresses overall functions of Department staff charged with administering travel.” Price is among numerous current or former members of President Trump’s administration who have been the focus of complaints and investigations centered on their use of government funds and other behaviors in office. (Berman and Goldstein, 7/13)

Two HHS political appointees who worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign were forced out this week in response to a series of inflammatory tweets and other behavior detailed in a recent POLITICO report. Tim Clark, the agency's White House liaison, is resigning and will depart the agency in the coming weeks, according to an internal email sent to staff and shared with POLITICO. He has been replaced by Trent Morse, who joined HHS from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Diamond, 7/13)