Kuhl releases documents….sort of
We told you earlier about Channel 13’s yeoman efforts at getting a hold of expense reports for Kuhl’s trip to Brazil. The Kuhl people have responded, to a certain extent. Here’s the expense report. The one problem is that the cost of the airplane flights themselves is just given as “military aircraft.” From what I’ve heard, that’s the most expensive part of the trip by far. I’ve heard figures of over 10K per person in costs for that alone. (I don’t know how accurate that is.) It’s much more than that. See the update later.
You can read the Kuhl press team’s response here. It may be the most smart-ass press release I’ve ever read. It sounds a little like something I might write on D&C blogs after a few glasses of wine. Here’s an excerpt:
Today my staff obtained a copy of the expenses for the bipartisan CODEL to Brazil that I and eight other members of Congress attended from November 26 – December 1, 2007. The total for my portion of the trip was $4,028.93, which divided up among the 600,000+ residents the 29th District, equals approximately $0.00671 per constituent.
I understand the significance $0.00671 means to my district, but achieving energy independence is priceless to some. There are those who said that this trip was a vacation and we should have spent our time in Iowa. When Iowa finds the solution to energy independence, I will be the first to schedule a CODEL there.
It is unfortunate that some media outlets and individuals would skew this trip to only be about dollars and cents. But the truth is that this trip was desperately needed by lawmakers of Congress to find a solution to the energy crisis and I encourage more of my colleagues in Congress to visit Brazil.
Update on military aircraft:
In a series of reports, CNN’s Drew Griffin writes, “Members of Congress could fly business class on commercial planes for a lot less money than the estimated $10,000 an hour spent on military charters.”
I wouldn’t have problem with any of this if Kuhl gave us any indication that he learned something about energy independence since going to Brazil. He votes the same way he always has on energy issues. I hope he had fun with my $.006 not including plane fare.