Outgoing Congressman Traveling On Aspen Institute Dime

November 24th, 2006 at 07:44am Post Staff 43

ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)--U.S. Representative Jim Kolbe sure does get around, and his lame-duck status as a retiring Congressman has sent his travels around the world into overdrive, courtesy of the Aspen Institute and other organizations

According to the watchdog group PoliticalMoneyLine.com, the Tucson, Arizona, Republican took a junket to Krakow, Poland, and London, England, that cost the Aspen Institute $5,041. The Aspen Institute is the leading provider of such educational trips to legislators in the U.S. Senate and Congress.

Such trips are allowable under House rules but Kolbe's walkabouts bear close scrutiny because such trips usually have an educational component that would be of putative use on the job to a legislator. Since Kolbe is a goner, the value of his trips to taxpayers is inherently suspect.

Kolbe, in his last months in office, has been busy traveling on the dime of other organizations other than the Aspen Institute, the think tank with locations here in Aspen, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. From October 8-13, 2006, Kolbe went  to Madrid, Spain, and Brussels, Belgium, before returning to Washington, D.C., for a $8,700 trip paid for by the International Republican Institute. The month before, the Global Fund To Fight AIDS ponied up $7,226 trip for a "position interview" in Geneva, Switzerland, according to the watchdog group.

In July 2006, Kolbe's tripping took him to Bellagio, Italy, at the behest of the German Marshall Fund, for a $7,240 trip.

Go to  Members Privately Paid Travel for more revelations about travel by legislators.

Entry Filed under: Politics, Aspen, Non-Profits, Post Time News