Government Travel Tab Up Tenfold

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the spending on government travel abroad is up almost tenfold since 1995. In 2008, hundreds of lawmakers traveled abroad at a cost of $13 million.

The Journal says that while most of these lawmakers go abroad for foreign relations visits, they also tack on a few days at a more exotic locales, like Italy, the Galapagos Islands and Paris, for less diplomatic reasons.

Often, lawmakers combine trips to war zones with visits to more tranquil spots. In February, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a delegation of Democratic lawmakers to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan for a day. Before landing in Kabul, the eight lawmakers and their entourage of spouses and aides spent eight days in Italy, spending $57,697 on hotels and meals.

A spokesman for Ms. Pelosi says that she was working in Italy, meeting with U.S. troops at Aviano Air Base, laying a wreath at the Florence American Cemetery, giving a speech to Italian lawmakers and visiting the Pope, among other things.

So, how did a policy allowing this come about?

The congressional trips are possible thanks in part to an unlimited fund created by a three-decade old law. Nearly two dozen government officials work full-time organizing the trips. Much of the costs are not made public, including the cost of flying on government jets. The Air Force maintains a fleet of 16 passenger planes for use by lawmakers.

Documents obtained by the Journal show that the cost of flying a small group of lawmakers to the Middle East is about $150,000. Larger trips on the Air Force's version of the Boeing 757 cost about $12,000 an hour. Two federal agencies pay for most of the travel -- the Defense Department and the State Department.

Although I see the merit in our lawmakers traveling abroad to boost relations with other countries, I'm skeptical that so many trips were needed- especially in 2008. Remember 2008? The collapse of the financial system, housing market and the loss of millions of jobs across the country? Here is a government that chastised the Big Three automakers for traveling to DC in their jets while their industry was in ruins, and yet they spent millions of taxpayer dollars traveling abroad while their own taxpayers were losing jobs, health insurance and their homes. Nice.