The Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 7 that Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight new jets for a federal fleet that already has nearly two dozen passenger jets and that is maintained by the Air Force just outside of Washington, D.C. Members of Congress themselves will be, as they have been for some time, among the primary users of the new planes. The Air Force says the new jets are not needed. Shamed by public exposure, Congress has scaled back its request to just four new planes.
Earlier this year, President Obama reported that he was content with the existing presidential helicopters and asked Congress to terminate the program to build new presidential copters, in large part because of escalating cost overruns. Congress ignored the president and the House voted for $400 million to continue a program not wanted by the White House.
Why is Congress so clueless? In the past 14 years the cost of congressional travel overseas has nearly tripled, up nearly 70 percent since 2005. Often members of Congress take spouses with them. Spousal travel is free (covered by taxpayers) if they use an Air Force plane, but not when they fly commercial, except when private sponsors (corporations, institutes, etc.) agree to cover the expense. The WSJ reported that the cost of congressional travel this past year, exclusive of using military transport, was $13 million.
In 2008 the top travel destination for members of Congress was Kuwait, probably because of Kuwait’s location in the Middle East, the U.S. military bases there, and the relative safety it offers our elected leaders (as opposed to Iraq). The WSJ estimates the cost of using an Air Force plane to send a small delegation to Kuwait is about $150,000.
The second most-desired destination for congressional travel last year was Germany, followed by Austria, then France, Poland, the U.K., China, Israel and Switzerland. Taxpayer-funded trips to Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, the Galapagos Islands and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef were also made last year by members of Con-gress.
Now it is true that as the earth has flattened, and Congress has discovered that America cannot risk behaving as if it were an island nation, congressional trips to war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan have increased, perhaps appropriately. It is also true that America’s elected leadership needs to cultivate allied partner nations. Not so long ago fewer than half of the members of Congress even had a passport, so perhaps we should applaud growing congressional engagement with the wider world.
Yet warranted or no, too many congressional trips overseas appear as unnecessary junkets or unearned perks, and seem hypocritical when the same congressional travelers not long ago castigated certain corporate leaders for using a company jet for travel to Washington in order to beg Congress for a taxpayer bailout. The public tends to learn a lot more about corporate excesses than about congressional, even though peripatetic members of Congress are required to report the details of their travel within 30 days of returning home.
Federal law permits unlimited, public-funded travel by members of Congress and again, no doubt many of these trips result in strengthening either multinational alliances or congressional understanding of foreign policy issues. Yet despite the requirement to release information about overseas trips to the Congressional Record, it is rare for the information to be reported in the media organs within the member of Congress’s district.
Maine might consider leading the nation in this regard. Maine’s major newspapers and television and radio stations should enter an agreement with our four-member congressional delegation in the spirit of openness and accountability. Request each of our members to give the media advanced notice of any planned trip overseas (whenever security issues are not paramount) and further request that following each trip the members report to the media the purpose of the trip, the sponsor, the duration, the number of aides accompanying them, the cost (travel, hotels, and meals) and the learning outcome(s).
Not only will such a pact ensure greater congressional accountability but it will also help educate Mainers about the international work our members of Congress are doing.
Roger W. Bowen is author of the book “Innocence Is Not Enough.” He resides in Prospect Harbor.