[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE PRESIDENT'S ENTOURAGE TO CHINA AND OTHER LOCATIONS

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to comment on the President's 
recordbreaking trip to China.
  The President broke every record imaginable in the size of the 
delegation he took with him to China and in the amount he spent on a 
foreign trip. His official entourage numbered more than 1,000. Its 
estimated cost was $40 million, according to the International Herald 
Tribune.
  ``The Presidential entourage filled four passenger planes and several 
military transports.'' In addition, the retinue included six Members of 
Congress, five cabinet officials, who each brought almost 40 staff 
members, a chief of staff, a deputy chief of staff, a national security 
adviser, a deputy national security adviser, a press secretary, a 
deputy press secretary, five stenographers, two White House television 
crews, a valet for the President and a hairdresser for Mrs. Clinton, 
the President's private secretary and the White House staff secretary, 
speechwriters and rewriters, doctors and lawyers, snipers, commandoes, 
bomb-sniffing dogs, and of course, 375 reporters and photographers.
  Vice President Gore must have felt like the kid in ``Home Alone.'' 
They spent more in 10 days than Judge Starr spent in 3 years.

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