Sununu Asks Bush’s Ethics Aide to Review Travel Data

Bowing at least slightly to public pressure over his extensive travel on military airplanes, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu has asked C. Boyden Gray, counsel to the President and chief adviser on ethics, to review all of his travel records to determine whether his accounting of them was “accurate and appropriate,” officials disclosed Thursday.

Until now, the White House had insisted that Gray would review future travel policy but would not delve into questions surrounding Sununu’s past travels. But, “in the last day or two the governor has asked Boyden Gray also to take a look at his own records,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

Last week, Sununu released a list of trips that he had taken on military aircraft. Since then, the former New Hampshire governor and other White House officials have refused to answer further questions about his travel.

It remains unclear, for example, who actually reimbursed the government for trips Sununu deemed to be “personal” or “political.” Federal ethics rules strictly limit such reimbursements. If Sununu’s travel costs were reimbursed by the wrong parties, he could have violated ethics rules.

Under current White House rules, Sununu is allowed to use a military plane whenever he chooses but he is required to reimburse the government when a trip is political or personal in nature. The reimbursement--set at the cost of a commercial coach ticket--covers only a part of the actual expense. The Air Force says that the military jets cost $3,945 an hour to operate.

President Bush asked Gray to review the White House policy on travel after Sununu’s use of military planes became public. Fitzwater said that Gray still has several more issues to study and would not say when his report will be released. Fitzwater also declined to say whether Gray’s rulings on Sununu’s past trips would be made public.

Meanwhile, Fitzwater reacted sharply to stories about Vice President Dan Quayle’s use of a military plane to take a brief golfing vacation in Atlanta last weekend.

“The vice president of the United States flies on military aircraft wherever he goes. That is right and proper and in accordance with all of the concerns for that office, and for the security of a vice president and his role in our constitutional process,” Fitzwater said. “And that will not change.

“The American people do not ask their elected officials to give up their lives to take these positions,” Fitzwater added. Top Administration officials, he said, should not be expected “to live like hermits while they’re in these offices.”