Taxpayers have paid for Tom Price, the head of the Health and Human Services Department, to fly on private planes at least 24 times , a decision the department defended by saying Price wanted to connect with ordinary Americans.

The cost of the trips exceeded $300,000, Politico reported. Charmaine Yoest, an HHS spokeswoman, defended the cost in a statement, saying Price was justified in taking the flights because he wanted to hear from many Americans.

This is Secretary Price, getting outside of D.C., making sure he is connected with the real American people, she said in a statement to The Washington Post . Wasting four hours in an airport and having the secretary cancel his event is not a good use of taxpayer money.

But Politico found that Price could have used a commercial plane for many of the trips on which he used a private jet. For example, the outlet reported that HHS paid $17,760 for a chartered flight from Washington to Nashville, Tennessee, on June 6 when there were commercial flights available for just a few hundred dollars. Price also used a private plane to fly to the swanky Aspen Ideas Festival in June, a trip Politico estimated to have cost more than $7,000.

Price began using private air travel after a delayed commercial flight made him miss a public event that his office had planned, according to the Post.