Public records spanning more than a decade suggest that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has long used funds derived from donors and taxpayers to cover luxury expenses, a now-relevant detail that did not come up during her confirmation hearing, the Washington Examiner has found.
Chavez-DeRemer is facing allegations of improperly using the Labor Department to commit “travel fraud” by ordering her top staffers to “make up” official trips to select destinations so that she could spend time with friends and family on the public’s dime, according to a complaint reportedly filed with the DOL’s Office of Inspector General, the New York Post first reported. While the Labor Department has denied allegations of Chavez-DeRemer’s impropriety, her two top staffers have since been placed on leave pending an investigation, sources told NBC News.
A review of the congressional record shows senators did not raise concerns about luxury travel expenditures paid for by Chavez-DeRemer using her campaign and public accounts during her time in Congress and as mayor of a Portland suburb. Such payments have newfound relevance amid allegations that the labor secretary misused Labor Department funds for personal travel.
Instead, senators on the health, education, labor, and pensions committee grilled Chavez-DeRemer on her approach to labor laws, her compliance with appropriations bills, how she would cooperate with the Department of Government Efficiency, and matters related to immigration and the minimum wage. She was ultimately confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 67 to 32, drawing bipartisan support and opposition following an aggressive push in her favor from the Teamsters due to her pro-union record.
“Whatever Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer does on her own time is her own problem to deal with,” Craig Holman, a veteran campaign finance lobbyist for Public Citizen, a left-of-center think tank, told the Washington Examiner. “But when she uses our money to pay for her luxury trips and other personal items, then it is our problem that the public must address. Chavez-DeRemer has a history of using the public dole for self-indulgence, and both the HELP-committee that selected her for the position, and Congress that confirmed her appointment, should have looked into her history and realized the same behavior would be forthcoming as Labor Secretary. Now that it is public record, Chavez-DeRemer should be removed from the office she never deserved in the first place.”
Mike Watson, research director at the right-of-center Capital Research Center and an expert on organized labor, shared a similar perspective.
“You’re picking from the distinct minority faction, you don’t have as much choice,” Watson said, referring to Chavez-DeRemer status as a pro-labor Republican. “There just aren’t that many choices. So maybe you do background vetting and find that somebody like Chavez-DeRemer has some issues, but, well, who else am I going to pick? Somebody who’s actually conservative?”
Senators and their staff should not be judged too harshly for failing to question Chavez-DeRemer on her spending history, as the details of such have not been widely reported.
Chavez-DeRemer’s questionable spending began relatively modestly.
In 2012, she received a $112 reimbursement for attending a Rotary golf tournament while serving as the mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon, public records obtained by the Washington Examiner show. During her tenure as mayor, she billed the city another couple of hundred dollars for payments to luxury car and limousine services.
Chavez-DeRemer’s tastes appear to have grown more expensive upon running for Congress.
A Washington Examiner review of campaign finance filings shows that, while she was running for Congress, Chavez-DeRemer spent tens of thousands of dollars given to her by donors on steak, seafood, limousine rides, and trips to five-star resorts and casinos.
Some of the largest single campaign expenditures from Chavez-DeRemer included $1,512 in campaign funds spent at the St. Regis ski resort in Utah, nearly $7,000 at the Phoenician, a resort located in central Arizona, roughly $2,000 to the lakeside Otesaga Resort Hotel in upstate New York, and $2,585 in payments to the Inn at the Pier located right on the coast in Pismo Beach, California.
“Seduce your senses with luxury resort experiences in Arizona’s premier luxury resort,” the Phoenician’s website says. “Enjoy a relaxing soak in a Roman oval bathtub within spacious accommodations. Lounge on private balconies with gorgeous panoramic views, or lounge in the comfort of our signature rejuvenating and restful Luxury Collection bed … At The Phoenician, your every desire is taken care of.”
The St. Regis, similarly, promises “unmatched luxury” and an “impeccable location,” while the Inn at the Pier boasts about being “just a few steps away” from the shore and its “cozy, beach-house atmosphere.”
Chavez-DeRemer managed to rack up these expenses over just two years. She spent close to $5,000 on limousine services during that period.
While there’s nothing necessarily illegal about spending campaign funds in this way, so long as the expenses could plausibly be related to her campaign, donors likely don’t expect funds they contribute to candidates to be used in such a way. Critics have accused some members of Congress of stretching the definition of what constitutes a legitimate campaign expense.
The inspector general complaint scrutinizing Chavez-DeRemer’s use of Labor Department resources, in a similar vein, alleges that she often spends between 30 minutes and an hour speaking on work-related matters while on official trips, then spends the remainder of her time doing “personal stuff” like going “out drinking at night,” according to the New York Post.
Once she was elected to Congress, Chavez-DeRemer made sure to make use of the public funds available to her.
Despite congressional financial disclosures indicating that she and her husband are multimillionaires, Chavez-DeRemer took advantage of an optional program intended to help less well-off members of Congress afford the high cost of maintaining a second residence in Washington, D.C.
In 2023, House Democrats quietly altered congressional rules to allow representatives to submit reimbursement requests for tens of thousands of dollars per year in food and housing expenses. The change in rules was reportedly spurred by concern among lawmakers after former Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) was forced to retire out of financial necessity due to his inability to afford care for his disabled child on top of rent in Washington.
House disbursement records show that Chavez-DeRemer, despite her millions in assets, claimed nearly $20,000 in taxpayer-funded reimbursements under the program to subsidize her lodging expenses in the nation’s capital in 2024.
During 2025, the Labor Department spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to pay for Chavez-DeRemer’s travels to 37 different states across more than 50 official trips, according to sources and departmental documents reviewed by the New York Post.
Allegations against Chavez-DeRemer get more lurid than the simple mishandling of public funds for travel and lodging.
During one trip, for instance, an inspector general complaint reportedly claims that Chavez-DeRemer took staff to Angels PDX, a strip club just outside Portland, at the end of a five-day trip dedicated to meeting Oregon officials and business owners, according to the New York Post.
While on another trip, this time to Las Vegas, Chavez-DeRemer allegedly welcomed a member of her security detail, whom the inspector general complaint claims she had an “inappropriate” romantic relationship with, into her hotel room at the Red Rocks Casino Resort and Spa, the New York Post reported. The inspector general’s complaint also asserts that she invited the security guard into her Washington, D.C., apartment three times.
Chavez-DeRemer and her husband have denied the affair. The security guard implicated in the alleged filing has been placed on administrative leave pending a misconduct investigation, the New York Times first reported.
“Any inquiry into the reported allegations is at an early, preliminary stage, and no findings have been made,” a law firm representing Chavez-DeRemer told the Washington Examiner, seemingly confirming the existence of the inspector general investigation. “It is important to allow the process to proceed without speculation or interference. We are confident that the matter will be appropriately addressed through established procedures. Secretary Chavez-DeRemer remains fully focused on her responsibilities and on advancing the Department of Labor’s priorities on behalf of America’s workers.”
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers previously cast doubt on the existence of the inspector general investigation in a statement to the New York Post. The Labor Department Office of Inspector General has also declined to confirm or deny the existence of the complaint in statements to the press, citing agency policy.
“Those kinds of decisions are very problematic because again, you’re a senior official and
the rules apply whether you’re senior or you’re down the chain,” Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., told the Washington Examiner, referring to the allegations against Chavez-DeRemer. “You can’t use your public office for your own personal gain or the personal gain of those in your personal orbit … It’s that much more important for people at the top of these agencies to set the example.”
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Brown pointed to the mass firings of inspectors general at the outset of the Trump administration as something that could “cast doubt on the impartiality” of the investigation. However, she said if the Labor Department’s inspector general were “to investigate and find evidence and take action on that evidence,” it would go “a long way to re-establishing accountability and trust.”
The Labor Department, as well as Republican and Democratic representatives for the HELP committee, did not respond to requests for comment.