New Documents Shed Light on Pelosi’s Abuse of Air Force Aircraft

Big Government ^ | 10/19/10 | Tom Fitton

[pissant]

Talk about arrogance. Even in the face of a Judicial Watch investigation spotlighting Nancy Pelosi’s abuse of military air craft, the House Speaker shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, Speaker Pelosi may have set a frequent flyer record for taxpayer-financed luxury jet travel.

We recently obtained new documents from the United States Air Force detailing Speaker Pelosi’s use of United States Air Force aircraft between March 2009 and June 2010. And they pretty much tell the same, outrageous story as previous documents we’ve uncovered and released.

Here are the highlights from the newest batch of documents, which we obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on January 25, 2009:

•Pelosi used the Air Force aircraft for a total of 85 trips, covering 206,264 miles, from March 2, 2009 through June 7, 2010. Pelosi, her guests and Air Force personnel logged a total of 428.6 hours on these flights. •Members of Pelosi’s family were guests on at least two flights. On June 20, 2009, Speaker Pelosi’s daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons joined a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to San Francisco International Air Port. That flight included $143 in on-flight expenses for food and other items. On July 2, 2010, Pelosi took her grandson on a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, which is northeast of San Francisco.

According to previous documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period —

[mad_as_he$$]

Why are you contradicting Biden? He made it clear he is second in line to be Prez. Guess MO put him in his place!

[justlurking]

That plane wasn't good enough for Pelosi, she only flies on a 757. You know, the same plane the Vice President uses.

I don't know if the latest round of documents itemize it, but earlier analysis of Pelosi's travel found that she only used the 757 once or twice.

There's some dispute on the point, but the Air Force claimed that the reason the 757 was used those times is because a smaller plane wasn't available.

[justlurking]

no.....we have no royalty in this country by design and its time we stop people who think they are the royalty...

That's fine, but there's no point in attacking Pelosi for using a government plane for personal travel when the policy was instituted by the Bush administration for security reasons.

She shouldn't be hauling family members and friends around with her, and she certainly shouldn't be running up huge catering bills for liquor. But, that's a separate issue.

[Vinnie]

Sooo, When she doesn’t have guests she has a 757 to herself?

[antiRepublicrat]

I don’t have a problem with her having a plane. As you say, she’s third in line, so she needs to be able to get anywhere very fast. They allotted her a type of jet, a Gulfstream G5, but it wasn’t big enough. Apparently it had the range to fly her and basic staff non-stop to SF, but it didn’t have the capacity to fly her, her extended family and assorted hangers-on all the way non-stop. Thus she requested a custom executive-fitted Boeing 757. That is going beyond the needs of the government in keeping a Speaker at the ready and into purely her personal perks. Not only that, but she logged twice as many trips in two years as her predecessor did in three.

I expect Boehner to accept a smaller plane again to save the taxpayers money, and to not use it as his personal airline.

[Citizen Soldier]

question: does the house minority leader get a military plane to use too? SHE needs a 757 to travel in