Northwest congressmen say trips were job-related
By: Harry Esteve
The Portland Oregonian
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:39 AM PDT
PORTLAND — Northwest congressmen Greg Walden and Brian Baird are defending expensive global travels on the taxpayers’ dime, saying such trips are a crucial part of their job.
Reps. Walden, R-Ore., and Baird, D-Wash., came under scrutiny this week for separate overseas trips. The trips cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time when average families are cutting their budgets -- and politicians often bring their spouses.
Walden is on a two-week trip that includes stops in Eastern Europe and China to talk with foreign leaders about the economic crisis. Cost estimates for the trip weren’t available Monday.
Baird has come under fire for leading an 11-day climate change fact-finding mission in late 2007 and early 2008 to the South Pole that cost an estimated $500,000 — most of it in airfare.
“These are official functions,” Walden’s spokesman Andrew Whelan said about the Oregon representative’s travels. Walden and five other lawmakers are meeting with foreign finance ministers and political leaders to talk about ways to improve trade and the global economy, Whelan said.
Walden’s wife, Mylene Walden, accompanied him on the trip, Whelan said. Other than the cost of air travel, the Waldens are responsible for paying for her hotel, meal and other costs, he said.
“Spouses only get to travel on the plane if there are seats available, and it’s a member’s prerogative to pay the way for his or her spouse,” Whelan said. Whelan said he couldn’t give details about the itinerary for security reasons but said the delegation has met with finance ministers in Munich and Kiev. He said Walden was invited on the trip by House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. Baird’s trip was the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation this weekend into congressional travel practices. The paper reported that in addition to visiting a research site at the South Pole, the 10 members spent time diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier reef and made side trips to Australia and elsewhere that sounded more like tourism than work.
The newspaper documented non-airfare expenditures of $103,000. Because the members rode in Air Force jets rather than commercial planes, the newspaper estimated the total cost of the trip to be about $500,000. Baird, whose wife did not go, said the trip was timed to coincide with international meetings on global climate change, and he was able to get firsthand information about polar ice, coral and other environmentally sensitive areas. An experienced scuba diver, Baird made three dives to explore the Great Barrier Reef, where he was able to see degradation to coral beds. He said he is frustrated by reports suggesting he is wasting tax money by traveling out of the country.
“If people are going to say that any time a member of Congress goes near the water, it’s going to be an expose, we are setting a dangerous precedent because we’re not going to know about the health of our oceans,” Baird said.
Baird also took heat a year ago for a trip to the Galapagos Islands, which also was aimed at researching climate change. Since then, he has made a number of trips to war zones.
He said the trip to the South Pole was made before the bottom fell out of the U.S. economy. “Would you do this trip today? That’s a different question than a year and a half ago,” he said.
The questions about congressional travel come at a time when lawmakers are considering spending $550 million on new jets to handle travel by top government officials. The House-backed plan is part of an overall defense spending bill that has run into criticism in the Senate.
Baird said that traveling is part of the duties of Congress, and it doesn’t make sense to hamstring members because the trips might sound exotic to the public.
“I know not all congressional travel is justified,” he said. As for his trips, “I feel the knowledge we gained was absolutely essential.”
