WSJ Spotlights Taxpayer-Financed Trip To Scotland for Emerson and 11 Colleagues

The Wall Street Journal posted a story tonight about a recent luxurious trip to Scotland for Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and 11 of her colleagues to attend a NATO Parliamentary Assembly conference.  Her trip is highlighted as an example of the growing taxpayer-financed travel costs for Members of Congress and their staffs.

The expenses racked up by U.S. lawmakers traveling here for a conference last month included one for the "control room."

Besides rooms for sleeping, the 12 members of the House of Representatives rented their hotel's fireplace-equipped presidential suite and two adjacent rooms. The hotel cleared out the beds and in their place set up a bar, a snack room and office space. The three extra rooms -- stocked with liquor, Coors beer, chips and salsa, sandwiches, Mrs. Fields cookies and York Peppermint Patties -- cost a total of about $1,500 a night. They were rented for five nights...

In Edinburgh, the lawmakers stayed at the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa. With "state-of-the-art spa and leisure facilities including a rooftop indoor/outdoor pool," says Frommer's guidebook, "this hotel pretty much has it all."

The group stayed in top-floor rooms overlooking the 12th-century Edinburgh Castle. The government rate for the rooms is at least $300 a night, according to the hotel. On top of that was the control room of three adjoining rooms stripped of beds. Lawmakers and aides say a control room is necessary to provide work space, meeting rooms and easy access to American-style food.

Emerson was one of 12 Congressmembers on the bipartisan trip that was "mostly financed by the taxpayer," most whom did not attend the final two days of the conference.

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is not directly connected to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but "provides a forum for lawmakers from NATO countries and several others to discuss security and political and economic matters."

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The Sowers campaign released the following statement this morning in response to the WSJ article:

Wall St Journal exposes taxpayer-funded travel by Jo Ann Emerson

Rolla, MO (December 16, 2009) – Today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal exposes a lavish trip taken last month at taxpayer expense by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson to Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Wall Street Journal reported Congresswoman Emerson and the rest of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation, along with their spouses and aides flew on government planes to Europe, where they mixed their five-day conference with fine dining, shopping and sightseeing. According to the Journal, Congresswoman Emerson also departed two days early from the conference for undisclosed reasons.

The WSJ stated the group’s expenses included a dedicated Mercedes minivan and bus at the cost of $2500 a day. The WSJ reported the lodging in rooms of “at least $300 a night” and the rental of the presidential suite in order to have a group bar and office space at a cost of $1,500 a night for all five nights of the conference.

Jonathan Feifs, spokesman for Tommy Sowers, noted, “While families in southeastern Missouri struggle to make ends meet, Jo Ann Emerson was skipping out of a conference in Europe at taxpayer expense. Maybe she should have spent those days trying to bring back the thousands of jobs that have disappeared on her watch. Perhaps if she had spent the full five days at the conference, she could have persuaded some of our NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan and relieve the burden on the American soldier and taxpayer. While behavior like Emerson’s might be acceptable by Washington DC standards, it is simply out of touch with the district and our values. Southeastern Missouri deserves better.”