Air Congress Hits Turbulence

Author: admin

13 Aug

Congressional scandals form a pattern. First, there is the revelation that some members have acted in a high-handed, spendthrift or unethical manner. Then public anger flares, and Congress responds by belatedly tamping down the controversy.

Most of the time this is the end of it. But every once in a while the scandal continues to burn and consumes a few members. That’s what happened in 1994 when the House Bank and Post Office scandals helped fuel the Republican takeover of Congress, and in 2006 when the Jack Abramoff and earmark scandals helped end GOP control.

House leaders hope that dropping plans to spend $550 million on elite Gulfstream jets to fly members around the globe will dissipate public ire. I’m not so sure. Voters are strapped by the weak economy and angry about how health-care reform is being rushed through Congress. More revelations about congressional travel are coming.

Frequent flying by Congress is a growth industry. As the Journal’s Brody Mullins reported this month, House members last year spent some 3,000 days overseas on taxpayer-funded trips, up from about 550 in 1995. This month, 11 separate congressional delegations will visit Germany.

No one begrudges members visiting U.S. troops or conferring with key leaders in other countries. But with so many trips, boondoggles are inevitable.

The total cost for congressional overseas travel is never made public because the price tag for State Department advance teams and military planes used by lawmakers are folded into much larger budgets. Members of Congress must only report the total per diem reimbursements they receive in cash for hotels, meals and local transport.

They don’t have to itemize expenses—a convenient arrangement since most costs are covered by the government or local hosts. Some trips subtract some hotel and meal costs from the per diems, others do not. “The policy is completely inconsistent,” one House member told me. Total per diem allowances (per person, including staff) can top $3,000 for a single trip. Unused funds are supposed to be given back to the government, but congressional records show that rarely happens. Next >>