From the NY Post:Private groups — especially the pro-Israel lobby — spent $165,500 jetting New York City-area Congress members around the world last year to such destinations as Tel Aviv, Turkey and Italy, government travel records show.
Last year reflected a resurgence in the number of congressional junkets, as lawmakers have learned to take advantage of a loophole in a 2007 ban on trips paid for by companies with lobbyists.
The restrictions don’t apply to such nonprofits as think tanks, advocacy groups or universities. Those groups took local lawmakers on 11 junkets in 2011.
The most expensive trip for a local Congress member went to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan-Queens), who enjoyed a $24,000 jaunt to Israel in August, paid for by the education foundation.
Maloney also visited Italy in October on a $9,700 trip sponsored by the Collegium Ramazzini, an academy aimed at advancing occupational and health issues.
“I’ve always found it valuable to get out of the Beltway bubble, both to see the facts on the ground in nations that are important to the United States and to be learning those facts with other members in less-pressured surrounding,” Maloney explained.
Rep. Yvette Clark (D-Brooklyn) took two trips to Israel worth a combined $18,700.
And Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx) made two trips — one a $12,900 junket to Israel and a second $10,050 excursion to Kiev, Ukraine.
The latter trip was paid for by the Jewish Federation of the Ukraine. Engel sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), who is also on the committee, visited Istanbul on a $17,307 trip sponsored partly by the Congressional Study Group on Turkey.
13 comments:
Cue comments from the Israeli lobby trolls who will denounce anyone who notices this as "anti-Semitic".
Congress should be banned from accepting funds for overseas travel by Corp lobbyists. I think they should travel overseas to see up close what our $$ are being spent on and meeting with Govt & US based Co.
Let me try a different tact then, Deke. Let's also cue comments from the trolls who yell "ZOG" and the Republicans who think that President Obama isn't supporting Israel enough.
Israel? The same "friend of America" who bombed the USS liberty?
I cant wait till this place gets nuked out of existence.
Hey goyim, thanks for the THREE BILLION DOLLARS in foreign aid your politicians (really our politicians) have acquired for Israel every year for the past 10 years.
http://rense.com/general41/trill.htm
Well, when the trolls are blaming the "Joos" for everything, at least they're giving the "Asiatics" a break for a few hours.
The problem is not who funds the trips, but rather that these "fact-finding" trips are a farce. Ban them; or make the politicians report the value of the trip as income on their tax returns.
I am a southern Baptist who is very pro Israel. I volunteer on a kibbutz once a year. I am a Viet Nam (US Air Force) vet & a NYC retired math teacher. All that being said I too am against paying US tax payer money to send politicians abroad, Israel or any where else for that matter. If politicos want to travel abroad they should fund it themselves like I do. Long live Israel! Long live Queens Crapper! Death to Iran, Syria and the Palestinians! Long live my AMAZING NYC pension!
Think Gary Ackerman and Xenonics. Nuthin' new here!
Note Anon No. 4's comment, Deke. See what I mean?
Politicians will do anything to get the Jewish vote. what a bunch of thugs! Vote them all out!
Why don't we look into our POLS traveling in and their support of the foreign country called the United States"?
Stop the Socialist President from wasting billions of American taxpayers dollars on the world.
Then these joker politicians will not have an excuse to junket to observe what the money is really spent on.
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