Taxpayers paid for Gingrich’s private travel
By David Morris
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich didn’t receive a dime to teach a
history course at a Georgia college in 1993, but government records
show taxpayers picked up most of the tab to fly him there.
The records, compiled by the office of the House clerk, show
Gingrich used 10 of his 29 taxpayer-paid trips in 1993 to travel to
or from Atlanta on the 10 weekends he taught his course at Kennesaw
State College.
The trips occurred on consecutive weeks, the only period during
the year that he traveled home so regularly.
Members of Congress are reimbursed for flights home as long as
they claim official business as the primary purpose of the trip.
Meetings with constituents and speeches to community groups are
examples of official business, but teaching a course is not.
In Gingrich’s case, a spokesman said, constituent meetings were
set up to coincide with the weekly trips to the classroom.
"He made a commitment to be here for the course, so he built
town-hall meetings into the schedule," said Allan Lipsett, the
spokesman in Ginrich’s district office in Marietta, Ga. "That’s
what a congressman’s supposed to do: come home and be with your
constituents."
Chuck Lewis, of the Washington-based Center for Public
Integrity, criticized the travel payments.
"Public officials are not supposed to conduct private business
on the public nickel," Lewis said. "And they’re not supposed to
create the facade of official business to cover their costs."
He added, such mingling of official business and private
business is routine in Washington.
Gingrich taught for two hours on 10 straight Saturdays, starting
on Sept. 18, 1993. During that period, he filed expense accounts
for four round-trip flights between Washington and Atlanta. He also
claimed six one-way flights, either to Atlanta before the class or
to Washington after the class.
The flights cost $2,845, according to the House records. The
bill for Gingrich’s government-related travel for all of 1993, the
last year for which complete records are available, was $8,435.
Taxpayers did not pay for three other one-way trips. Gingrich’s
financial disclosure statement for 1993 shows that one trip to
Atlanta before a class and two trips that ended in Washington after
classes were paid by congressional candidates who invited him to
campaign for them.
Lipsett said Gingrich keeps a busy schedule each time he flies
to Atlanta to teach.
"He gets in on Friday evening, teaches the class on Saturday
morning, does a town hall meeting on Saturday afternoon," the
spokesman said. Often, he added, there is a dinner or speech
Saturday night, and sometimes an event on Sunday.
"All this while teaching a course he wasn’t paid anything for,"
Lipsett said.
Gingrich originally was offered $5,000 to teach the course, but
he agreed to teach for free since elected officials are prohibited
from being paid by state colleges and universities in Georgia. He
now teaches the course at a private college, and it is distributed
nationally on cable television.
Questions about the course are the focus of a complaint against
Gingrich before the House ethics committee.
The Associated Press reported this week that Gingrich was
offered the course by Kennesaw’s business dean after the
congressman helped the dean’s private consulting firm set up a
meeting to seek contracts from a government agency. The firm did
not win any contracts.