Congressional Junkets

[wetech]

Does anyone else find this a bit suspect? The NE US is covered in freezing weather and snowstorms and members of Congress are jetting around in the Virgin Islands and Central America with their spouses, all on our dime.

Link

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Congress is keeping Andrews Air Force base plenty busy this year ferrying lawmakers all over the globe at taxpayers? expense. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi took his wife, nine Democrats and two Republicans - Reps. Dan Lungren of California and Mike Rogers of Alabama - on a whirlwind tour of the Caribbean last week. After stops in Honduras and Mexico, they stopped in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the delegation stayed at the five-star Caneel Bay resort.

In a separate trip to the Caribbean last week, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York squired his wife and four Democratic members to Grenada and Trinidad.

All told, the military flew at least 13 congressional delegations to various destinations during the Easter recess -- at an estimated rate of $10,000 or more per flying hour.

The congressional delegation trips, known as CODELs, are paid for by taxpayers. They are supposed to be directly related to members? official duties, and House guidelines also stipulate that delegations include members of both parties to qualify for military planes -- a requirement that Speaker Nancy Pelosi waived for Engel?s group and two other delegations.

?There was a good faith effort made to include Republican members,? a Pelosi spokesman said. ?For one reason or another, that did not work.?

In one instance, he said, a Republican slated for a Democrat-led trip had to cancel because of a ?family emergency.?

So just waive the rules if you can't stick with them. I say, if they couldn't follow them, they should have used alternative means. I'm sure a dozen round-trip tickets would have cost a hell of a lot less then the $10k per hour military planes. Spouses should also have to pay fares comparable to those of regular airlines (try telling an airline, "The plane is going there anyway, you don't really need to charge me, it's all fixed costs." and see what they say).

In their successful campaign to win control of Congress last fall, Democrats accused Republicans of extravagant travel paid for by lobbyists. Some of these trips carried a strong whiff of influence peddling. The worst that can be said of CODELS, and critics often say it, is that they?re junkets.

Thompson?s office said he toured the Caribbean because he now chairs the Homeland Security Committee and wanted to see vacation hot spots to ?examine border security and port security.? Three other members of the delegation also brought along their spouses.

?They are going from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday,? a committee spokeswoman told The Examiner. ?They do not have down time.?

[At the Caneel Bay resort, where room rates reach $1,100 per night, the spokeswoman said Thompson and his wife paid the ?government rate.? But, according to the reservations department, Caneel Bay doesn?t ?offer any government rates.?

Right... so they need to go to 5 star resorts (with their spouses) to find out about border and port security. I also liked the part about how they " paid the government rate". Maybe he meant to say, "the government paid the rate". I think that if your spouse comes on the trip, you should have to foot half of the hotel bill as well.

And since when did the VI become the model examples of port security?

According to the hotel's website Text:

Situated on a 170-acre peninsula surrounded by the beauty of the Virgin Island National Park and seven pristine beaches, Caneel Bay is on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. With 3/5 of the island preserved under the national park system, the island remains the least commercial and low key of the three USVI islands. This tiny island is only accessible by boat or ferry. Its beaches are considered to be some of the best in the world, white sandy beaches shaded by seagrape trees and coconut palms.

Sounds like the place is just bustling with machine gun toting customs inspectors. We sure could learn a lot here.

After Caneel Bay, the group headed to Key West, Fla., for a ?classified briefing on inter-jurisdictional agency task forces,? a Thompson spokeswoman said.

The Caribbean trip led by Engel, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, explored the ?best practices for emergency disaster relief? and energy policy, according to his office.

Where in Key West did they hold this very important classified briefing, the Hog's Breath Saloon?

Traveling with Engel and his wife were Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Tex., and Barbara Lee, D-Calif. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who went to Belgium in a delegation led by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., earlier in the week, also joined Engel?s Caribbean trip. She brought her husband with her.

Frank?s trip to Belgium and London was related to his work as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, according to his office. The trip, which also included Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., was designed ?to further understand the interrelationship between various issues related to the financial services regulatory structures? of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, according to Frank?s office.

Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., also led a trip to Belgium over the two-week Easter recess. In February, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, took a delegation there.[/b]

So two separate trips needed to go there at the same time (after a 3rd in Feb)?

Combine all this with the fact that most places in Europe and the Caribbean had a 4 day Easter weekend, and I'm sure a lot of work was done. Then again, with the hours Congress works, may they did get 2-3 days of work done and can claim that they put a solid 2 weeks in.

And I'm not picking on just the Dems on this one. This kind of BS, paid for by our tax dollar, needs to stop on both sides.