The Pelosi airplane travel request brings up a lot of questions

Until Pelosi’s Tunagate story, I did not feel the need to check congressional actions out more than superficially. Now I do. It is what is not said, or in the small print, that now has my increased attention.

Trying to find information on Congressional travel perks, and the whole government for that matter, is difficult. In this alone my antenna started going up. Let me stick with Congress for now. Between 1991 and 1999 Congress used the Air Force’s government travel service 426 times, or 9.3% of the total trips. Just who paid for this I am not sure, but it looks like the Air Force did. Later during the first 4 and ½ years of this century, Congress took 4,800 airplane trips funded by private groups without paying a penny, at least it looks that way. I am unable right now to compare data for similar time periods.

Right now each House member is allowed a minimum of $9,700 for domestic travel to and from their districts. There is no published cap, but it looks like the further away your district is from D.C., the more you get as travel expenses go up with distance. Foreign travel is funded separately, mostly through the Mutual Security Act.

So this is what I will watch like a hawk to see what happens in the future.
A. Will Pelosi reimburse the Air Force for whatever she ends up with for her and her entourage's domestic travel? The fleet is large and has many Gulfstreams that can make the trip non-stop, as well as the Boeing 757-200 she has asked for.
B. With an end to lobbyist funded trips to the tune of 1,000+ a year, will House members domestic travel budgets go up? If so, will it be quietly, or in public?
C. Will funds for foreign travel paid by the Mutual Security Act go up dramatically?
D. Will requests for Air Force government air go up dramatically? Is Pelosi’s request for government air a hint of her savvy at getting out of the gate first?
E. And then the Senate bears watching, also!
F. Will ethical violations be punished? Why do I ask? Here’s one story: Shortly before retiring from Congress, Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.) and his wife took a four-day trip to England for $31,000. They flew the Concorde to London, stayed in a $1,000-a-day suite at the Savoy Hotel, and watched the Wimbledon finals from nearly $3,000 seats. The cost to Bliley? Nothing. Brown and Williamson Tobacco footed the bill. Although Bliley disclosed the House rules-violating gift, he never heard a word of complaint from its ethics committee.

Here are the references I used for this post:
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/ns99170.pdf
http://access.minnesota.publicradio.org/press_releases/releases/20040927_powertrips.shtml
http://www.thecapitol.net/FAQ/payandperqs.htm
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/010307/demrules.html