What's the Veep hiding?... and for whom is he hiding it?
By Rebecca CarrCox News Service
December 25, 2005
WASHINGTON -- It's no secret that Vice President Dick Cheney has a penchant for secret undisclosed locations.
Now comes a report from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, that found that Cheney and his staff
have "sidestepped" travel disclosure rules that require executive branch employees to specify who pays for travel and how much it costs when they deliver speeches at universities, think tanks and trade groups.
Cheney is withholding information that should be public under rules passed by Congress as part of the 1989 Ethics Reform Act, said Roberta Baskin, executive director of the center.
Over the past four years, Cheney has made 275 speeches and appearances, including 23 speeches to think tanks and trade organizations and 16 to colleges and universities, according to the center's research. By calling it "official travel," the center said, the public has been footing the bill rather than the group sponsoring his speech.
President Bush and other high-ranking executive branch officials routinely file reports with the Office of Government Ethics detailing who paid for their travel, food and lodging when they have delivered a speech or attended a conference, according to the center's report.
For example, then-Vice President Al Gore disclosed more than $180,000 in travel funded by outside groups from 1997 to 2000, according to the center. Records before Gore's second term are no longer kept, so it is impossible to verify whether then-Vice President Dan Quayle filed travel disclosure reports.
Bush files travel disclosure forms, said Baskin, so why doesn't the vice president? more...
The Whirlpool wonders about the trips to help his buddy, Tom DeLay.
Did the taxpayers pay to send the Veep to Texas to raise money for the indicted one?
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