The VA Is Paying for a Top Official's Cross-Country Commute
Source: ProPublica
INSIDE TRUMP'S VA
The VA Is Paying for a Top Official's Cross-Country Commute
Darin Selnick, the architect of the Trump administration's controversial new policies on private health care for veterans, traveled to Washington from his home in California twice a month at taxpayer expense.
by Isaac Arnsdorf Feb. 15, 2:05 p.m. EST
INSIDE TRUMP'S VA (1)
Investigating Trump's Promises to America's Veterans
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid $13,000 over a three-month period for a senior official's biweekly commute to Washington from his home in California, according to expense reports obtained by ProPublica. (2) ... The official, Darin Selnick, is a senior adviser to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie and has played a key role in developing the administration's controversial new rules on referring veterans to private doctors. The proposal, announced last month, has drawn opposition from some lawmakers and veterans groups.
Selnick lived in Washington during a previous stint in the Trump administration, from January 2017 until March or April 2018, earning a $165,000 salary. He rejoined the VA in late October 2018 and started flying to Washington from California for two weeks out of every month, at taxpayer expense. ... Selnick's expenses included $3,885.60 for six round-trip flights in coach, $5,595.46 for 23 nights in hotels and $1,976 for meals, the reports show. The expense reports, which ProPublica obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, cover six trips between Oct. 21, 2018, and Jan. 19, 2019. ... "It is unclear to me what role this person has at the VA, and why the VA is paying so much for him to travel back and forth," House veterans committee chairman Mark Takano said in a statement responding to the expense reports. "The funding allocated to VA should be used efficiently and effectively to provide benefits and health care for our veterans."
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Several top Trump administration officials have faced scrutiny over their travel expenses. Government investigators have reviewed former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's use of private jets, ex-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's first-class flights, and the president's own getaways to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. ... Like Selnick, outcoming FEMA Administrator Brock Long charged taxpayers for his regular trips home from Washington. Long, who agreed to reimburse the government after an investigation, resigned Wednesday.
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Selnick's arrangement might violate the letter, or at least the spirit, of federal regulations, according to Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics who has become an outspoken critic of the Trump administration. Ordinarily, an employee in the VA secretary's office would be based in Washington and therefore not entitled to paid travel to get there. However, the agency could cover Selnick's travel to Washington if his official work location, or "duty station," were in California. Then the question would be why an adviser to the secretary belongs 2,700 miles away. ... "It starts to look like they set his duty station in California just so he can have free flights," Shaub said. "It may or may not violate a specific rule, but it would be a management decision that could be called wasteful, and the inspector general would likely fault them for that."
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Help us investigate: Do you know what's going on at the VA? Are you a VA employee or a veteran who receives VA benefits and services? Contact Isaac Arnsdorf at 917-512-0256 or isaac@propublica.org. Here's how to send tips and documents to ProPublica securely.
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Isaac Arnsdorf is a reporter at ProPublica, covering national politics.
Isaac.Arnsdorf@propublica.org
Isaac Arnsdorf
@iarnsdorf
https://twitter.com/iarnsdorf
917-512-0256
Signal: 203-464-1409
(1) https://www.propublica.org/series/inside-trump-va
(2) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5736482-DS-Travel-Sep-2018-Jan-17-2019-Redacted.html
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/veterans-affairs-department-paying-for-darin-selnick-commute-at-taxpayer-expense
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