JD Vance Abused Power to Raise River Levels for Family Kayaking Trip

Vice President JD Vance made the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, raise the water level in a river to make it easier for his family to go kayaking in Ohio.

The Guardian reported that Vance requested that the engineers change the output of the Little Miami River at Caesar Creek Lake, a task that is usually reserved only for public events and emergency first responder training. But to do it at the personal request of the vice president and his family—while not illegal—is a blatant exploitation of the privileges that Vance’s office gives him. The Guardiannoted that Vance’s request wasn’t just to aid the Secret Service but to create “ideal kayaking conditions” for Vance and his family.

USACE data confirms a significant increase and then decrease in the river’s water levels corresponding with Vance’s arrival and departure from his family river excursion earlier this month.

It’s especially twisted for Vance to burn up public labor and resources for his family’s own leisure while his administration makes massive cuts to the National Park Service, which made his little river day possible in the first place.

“Those cuts are directly impacting middle-class families’ vacations,” former Bush administration ethics lawyer Richard Painter told The Guardian. “Whether they are doing it for the Secret Service or for him I think is splitting hairs. What he ought to be doing is choosing another place.”

The NPS has had more than a quarter of its workforce slashed since President Trump took office.

“When I was President Obama’s ethics czar in the White House I got a lot of unusual requests, but I never got one to increase the outflow of a waterway as part of a government official going kayaking,” former White House special counsel Norm Eisen said. “I never would have permitted this kind of a thing because whether it technically violates the rules or not, it creates the appearance that the vice-president of the United States is getting special treatment that’s not available to the average person who wants to utilise that body of water for recreational purposes.… While there may well be security-related explanations or justifications that come into the analysis, my reaction is: I don’t care. We shouldn’t be utilising government resources in this way. I never would have allowed it.”

Vance’s office has yet to comment.