As part of their “Tracking Your Taxes” report, Fox News has been following the many places that legislators in Washington are spending your hard earned tax dollars. The latest entry details some of their lavish travel habits. These are not USO tours to say the least. Look closely. There are Republicans on this list too.
According to congressional travel records, House and Senate members spent 6,910 days overseas in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2009, spending a total of $9.4 million.
Representatives traveled to some 127 countries this year, including hotspots in Europe, the Greek Islands, Hong Kong and Dubai. The Senate did its own share, traveling to 100 different countries — including places like Scotland, Morocco, Denmark, Sweden and Italy.
Add in the cost of military transport, and estimates show that totals for congressional travel this year will reach over $15 million — $2 million more than last year.
What’s worse, there is virtually no limit on what they spend, where they go, what they do, or how many times they travel.
Records show that lawmakers often file expense reports with minimal information.
Mike Thompson (R-Calif.) submitted expenses for a five-day Asian trip in December for $15,943 and listed no countries, no meetings, no names and no purpose of the travel. A month earlier Thompson spent a week in the Middle East — with no explanation of what taxpayers paid for, just a charge of $10,158.
This lack of detail is typical of congressional travel. )Click here to see where your senator or representative has traveled and records they submitted.)
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) says that is a dangerous attitude to take. “One rule of thumb I have always tried to practice: don’t go anywhere that you would not want to tell your newspaper. This is what I’m doing, and this is why it is relevant.”
While private corporations across the nation have put restrictions on business travel, there has been no attempt to reign in the lawmakers in Washington.
Members are allotted up to $500 a day for expenses, in addition to their $170,000 salaries, and are also eligible to fly in either business or first class. For a trip to Europe or Asia, that could cost over $10,000 — when flying coach costs just a few hundred dollars.
Over the summer break, House Minority Leader John Boehner traveled with five colleagues and four assistants for 10 days in August. They went from Washington to Germany and Switzerland to discuss financial issues, then to the Ukraine and Kazakhstan to talk about national security, then to Mongolia, China and Canada. But there are no names of whom they met, where they stayed or what, if anything, was accomplished. The bill for meals and lodging alone cost $50,000. While the military picked up the travel costs, which were in excess of $100,000, the trip is considered by many as excessive.
Some trips are not restricted to elected officials. Reports show taxpayers picked up the tab for trips taken by spouses and staff members, and sometimes without the company of the lawmaker.
In October 2008, six staffers from the Government Reform Committee, which oversees domestic administrative issues, took a nine-day trip to France, Kenya, Mali, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Germany at a cost of $87,984. No lawmaker accompanied the entourage.
