Politico | Where is Elaine Chao? US transport secretary took seven weeks of ‘private time’ in her first 14 months in office, investigation shows
‘Private’ time fills long stretches of the US transportation secretary’s daily calendar, according to POLITICO’s review of 14 months of records
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Tara Snyder, Kathryn A. Wolfe and Beatrice Jin on politico.com on October 1, 2018.
US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s day-to-day calendars are filled with large swaths of time blocked out as “private”, according to POLITICO’s analysis of newly released records – a pattern that several former DOT officials called unusual.
In total, Chao clocked more than 290 hours of appointments labelled private – the equivalent of about seven weeks’ holiday – during her first 14 months in US President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, based on a review of documents provided under the Freedom of Information Act.
That total does not include any private hours that occurred on nights, weekends, days marked as holiday or federal holidays.
Private hours per weekday
‘Private appointments’ on Chao’s calendar most often fall on Fridays. (POLITICO looked only at appointments falling between 9am and 6pm during the work week, excluding federal holidays or marked holiday days.)
