Navy Secretary Racks Up $4.7 Million In Travel

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy secretary has spent more than a full year of his five-year tenure on overseas travel, racking up more than 930,000 miles on trips that cost the taxpayer more than $4.7 million.

Ray Mabus, the former Mississippi governor, has taken at least 40 trips outside America as of July 2014, meeting officials and visiting sailors and Marines in more than 100 countries — travel he said is critical to his job in furthering U.S. and Navy interests abroad.

Mabus said the inspector general investigated after receiving a complaint about his travel and cleared him of wrongdoing. But his 373 days on the road contrast with those of Army Secretary John McHugh, who took fewer than half the trips at less than half the cost over the same time period.