It never occured to me, though I should have thought of it, but US Rep's can lease a car on the taxpayer's dime, or get a per mile reimbursement for official government business. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but, as you might imagine, some people take advantage. Charles Rangel (D -NY) has a $1,000 a month lease. And that doesn't even make it into the list of the seven most expensive. At the other extreme, John Carter's (R-TX) lease is $210.65 a month. Locals on the program include Mike Fitzpatrick who drives a Ford Five Hundred for $483.29 per month. Curt Weldon drives a Ford Expedition for around $713 per month. Read the whole story in today's Inky here.
I can understand the need to have a vehicle that can seat staff or transport cargo between here and DC or around a congressional district. I also note that the van in my driveway can seat 7 or hold a lot of stuff, depending on whether or not the 3rd seat is up. And it runs us about $250.00 a month for the basic payment plus interest. I also note that vehicles leased by the government for congressional representatives are not to be used for campaign purposes. During campaign season, when an elected official running for re-election is likely to make several stops in a day, how do they make that distinction?
It's a tricky subject.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Federal Rep's Car Lease Program
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ALL federal employees, that includes congresscritters, are allowed mileage, if you drive your own car, or cost of a rental car if you travel on government business with official
travel orders.
Generally, the GSA has a contract, which are competitively bid, with
the major rental car companies for below market rates.
How do they make the distinction? They don't.
A common tactic (and this is across the political board) is to start the morning with an official event (since you're already en route), hit a couple political events ON THE WAY to your eventing political event.
It's sneaky. It's also why the President, when he flies in for a major fundraiser on AF-1, always meets with the mayor or smoebody to discuss local-federal cooperation. It therefore becomes an "official trip," meaning that the campaign does not have to reimburse the government.
I think that the article on Sunday mentioned that Fattah chose to pay his own lease for this very reason -- he seems to do a lot of campaigning...
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