First he’s quoting Taylor Swift. Now, he’s getting in hot water for a Katy Perry concert.
Fresh off “Downtown Abbey” red office fame, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) is currently being scrutinized for reportedly spending taxpayer money and campaign funds on private plane flights, concerts and festivals.
Specifically, the Associated Press reports that Schock dropped $40,000 or more in taxpayer dollars on at least 12 flights on private planes own by donors since the middle of 2011. As House rules bar representatives from using private planes for official business and campaign travel, such expenses could be illegal.
Moreover, Schock’s political action committee GOP Generation Y dropped over $24,000 on tickets and festivals, which apparently included a sold-out June Katy Perry concert in Washington, D.C., last year.
More from the AP:
“You can’t say no when your boss invites you. Danced my butt off,” one former intern posted on his Instagram account with a picture of Perry at her June 2014 show. PAC records show a $1,928 expense for the ticket service StubHub.com two months later, listing it only as a “PAC fundraising event.”
Schock, who represents the 18th congressional district of Illinois, has been receiving some unexpected media coverage after reports surfaced earlier this year that his Capitol Hill office was being redecorated to look like a room on the PBS television show “Downton Abbey.”
Schock defended his office digs by insisting that he’s not “an old, crusty white guy.”
“I’m different. I came to Congress at 27,” he said. “When I take a personal vacation, I don’t go sit on the beach. I go do active things, and so I’m also not going to live in a cave. So, when I post an Instagram photo of me with my friends, you know, as Taylor Swift said, ‘haters gonna hate.'”
Ironically, Schock is already facing an ethics inquiry because of the office for possibly purchasing furniture with campaign funds and accepting free work from his interior decorator.
In an e-mail Monday, Schock addressed the flight expenses, stressing that he travels often “to stay connected with [his] constituents” and to fundraise for his campaign committee and other lawmakers in Congress. He also said that he is reviewing his office procedures “concerning this issue and others to determine whether they can be improved.”
