Reid, McConnell curb size of senators’ entourages

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have cracked down on the size of entourages that senators can take with them on official trips around the world this month.

August is travel time for many members of the Senate and House because of the recess: Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) is heading to Russia, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) is flying to Iraq, and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) will visit Eastern Europe, to name a few.

{mosads}Reid and McConnell have told their colleagues to travel light. Members may not invite relatives, consultants or members of the press. Nor may they take personal staffers unless they are needed to assist the entire delegation of lawmakers traveling.

And while lawmakers still may bring their spouses, husbands and wives may join trips only for “protocol purposes at no additional expense to the government.” This may prove to be the least popular rule, as lawmakers sometimes send their spouses on sightseeing or shopping trips while overseas.

The rules already have snagged Reid’s No. 2, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who had invited a reporter for a major newspaper to accompany him on a trip through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan. The reporter would have reimbursed the government for the cost of the trip, estimated at almost $7,000. Nevertheless, Durbin had to leave his would-be traveling companion behind after learning that including a journalist on an official trip would violate guidelines that Reid and McConnell issued in a letter to colleagues in March.

“The leadership created travel guidelines and sent them to all 100 senators to let them know what they will and will not authorize — it applies to leadership-sponsored travel,” Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley, said.

Senators can circumvent the rules by having their trips authorized by committee chairmen.

Manley said it is up to chairmen to decide whether to follow the leaders’ rules. Rank-and-file lawmakers won’t have such leeway.

“Some committee chairs decide to follow the standards and the guidelines that the leaders have set — some do not,” Manley said.

Some lawmakers are known for having a slim profile when overseas. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who has visited Iraq 10 times, travels either alone or with one aide.

“Senator Reed likes to get outside the Green Zone, and it’s easier when you have a minimal number of people rather than a big entourage,” said Reed’s spokesman, Chip Unruh, referring to the fortified area surrounding the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

Some lawmakers, such as Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), like to bring several staff members with them on official trips overseas, said a Senate Democrat recalling a Biden trip to China. Of course, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden has more freedom than most senators to bring a large contingent of support.

State Department officials who help organize congressional delegation trips, known as codels, sometimes view them as distractions from their regular work. One State Department official who spoke to The Hill on condition of anonymity said the headaches posed by congressional trips are made worse when lawmakers bring along a passel of staff.

“The visits are always cumbersome, requiring long hours of logistical planning from all sections of the embassy prior to the visit and hours of overtime during the visit,” the official said. “Every added person adds to the burden on the embassy’s resources — more cars, more embassy staff needed to accompany the group, etc.”

The official added that members’ spouses often make trips more expensive and difficult to plan.

“When spouses come, they do not accompany the senators and representatives to meetings and therefore require a completely separate schedule/program, which usually consists of shopping, and one full-time embassy employee — almost always a foreign service officer — is then needed to accompany the spouses for the duration of their stay.”

The official recalled a trip that former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), former Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) took a few years ago to Pakistan.

“When the senators went to Kabul on a military plane, the three spouses of Frist, DeWine and Coleman had a separate C-120 take them to Bahrain to take a windshield tour of the city and to shop,” the official said.