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<blockquote data-quote="Babagounj" data-source="post: 749038" data-attributes="member: 12952"><a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html" target="_blank">(Politico)</a>- Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.)&nbsp; wanted to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the damage&nbsp; caused by BP’s gigantic oil spill first hand.
 House Democrats said no.
 Republicans want to be able to take trips using their office spending&nbsp; allowance. But Democrats have heard from the Department of Homeland&nbsp; Security, which has asked that Congress organize trips through&nbsp; committees of jurisdiction, to avoid having to cater to a ton of&nbsp; individual lawmakers in a disaster zone, Democratic aides say. GOP&nbsp; leaders say they’ve heard nothing of this.
 “Unless there is some extraordinary reason to prohibit this&nbsp; trip – which has yet to be communicated to us – this is an unacceptable&nbsp; departure from past practices,” said Rep, Dan Lungren of&nbsp; California, the top Republican on the administration committee. “This is&nbsp; an educational trip for members using their own representational&nbsp; budgets to see, first-hand, the devastating impact of the Gulf spill.&nbsp; Our travel regulations permit this type of travel in support of our&nbsp; official representational duties, and unfortunately, this disaster is&nbsp; already having environmental and economical implications for the entire&nbsp; country – not just those districts represented by Members sitting on the&nbsp; House Energy and Commerce Committee.”
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[QUOTE="Babagounj, post: 749038, member: 12952"] [INDENT][URL="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html"](Politico)[/URL]- [B]Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) wanted to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the damage caused by BP’s gigantic oil spill first hand.[/B] [B]House Democrats said no.[/B] Republicans want to be able to take trips using their office spending allowance. But Democrats have heard from the Department of Homeland Security, which has asked that Congress organize trips through committees of jurisdiction, to avoid having to cater to a ton of individual lawmakers in a disaster zone, Democratic aides say. GOP leaders say they’ve heard nothing of this. [B]“Unless there is some extraordinary reason to prohibit this trip – which has yet to be communicated to us – this is an unacceptable departure from past practices,[/B]” said Rep, Dan Lungren of California, the top Republican on the administration committee. “This is an educational trip for members using their own representational budgets to see, first-hand, the devastating impact of the Gulf spill. Our travel regulations permit this type of travel in support of our official representational duties, and unfortunately, this disaster is already having environmental and economical implications for the entire country – not just those districts represented by Members sitting on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.” [/INDENT] [/QUOTE]

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