Roll Call:
Members of Congress routinely fail to report millions of dollars’ worth of costs that they are racking up on foreign trips, according to Treasury Department reports on the actual price tag of foreign travel.
Over the past 10 years, the cost of Congressional travel abroad has tripled, from about $6.4 million in 2001 to $19.4 million in 2008, dipping to $17.6 million last year, according to annual reports published by the Treasury Department covering the account that the State Department uses to pay travel costs for Members.
In total, according to the Treasury reports, the government has spent about $110.5 million on Congressional foreign travel since 2001.
That is $30 million to $40 million more than Congress detailed in routine reports published in the Congressional Record on foreign travel expenditures, though those reports are so rife with errors and inconsistencies that it is impossible to get a reliable total for any single year, let alone an aggregate for a decade.
A Roll Call tally of reports published in the Congressional Record indicates that the House and Senate combined have spent about $78 million on foreign travel since 2001. A study published by the Wall Street Journal last year came up with a total of about $73 million.
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