[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 137 (Monday, October 5, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11405-S11406]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PRESIDENTIAL TRAVEL

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I thought it would be important this 
morning to do a short reality check on our President. The President 
last week said Congress is a do-nothing Congress. They have not done 
their work. Why has Congress not done its work? You know, when he made 
that comment about us--and I have been here hour after hour in 
committee meeting after committee meeting, here on the floor, day after 
day for the balance of the year--I thought, you know, Mr. President, 
you challenged me a little bit. It is time to do a reality check. So I 
sent staff scurrying. We compiled the President's travel log, and what 
I am about to report to you is the travel log of President Bill 
Clinton.
  For a man who is bent on remaining in the White House, President 
Clinton sure spends a lot of time away from the White House. What you 
are about to hear is an analysis of how much time he has spent away, 
and why his people have not been on the Hill, why they have not been 
working with us, and now in the closing hours of a Congress he is 
either threatening a veto or threatening that he might just have to 
shut down Government to awaken us. Mr. President, let's do a bit of a 
reality check.
  Last year, President Clinton broke the Presidential record for 
foreign travel with his 27th trip abroad. Like the Energizer Bunny, he 
has continued to keep on going and going and going. This year so far he 
has logged 41 days in 11 countries--11 different foreign countries. 
Some say he is traveling in foreign countries to keep his mind off 
domestic problems. I would not want to make that assertion. What I do 
know is that the President has now broken all-time Presidential travel 
records with 32 trips abroad, more than any other president ever. Mr. 
President, you are out breaking records.
  However, just because President Clinton is not on foreign soil all 
the time doesn't mean he is in the White House. Bill Clinton also likes 
to travel around the country as well. He is particularly fond of 
combining both domestic travel and campaign fundraisers, with at least 
37 trips which include fundraisers just through this year, 1998, and 
there are at least 14 more fundraising events scheduled for October, 
according to reports. Stay tuned as I go down through this report, 
because you will find an anomaly between official travel and 
fundraising travel and what it is costing the taxpayers and maybe why 
he needs a little bit of supplemental spending.
  All told, the President has spent almost half of 1997, 149 days, as 
well as over half of 1998 so far, 155 days, outside of Washington, DC. 
Hello, Mr. President, we are trying to get our work done here. You 
criticize us for being a do-nothing Congress? Mr. President, where have 
you been?
  The President's travel at taxpayers' expense long ago broke the 
foreign travel record. To put it in perspective, Mr. President, you 
have traveled domestically over 304 days in the last 2 years. You have 
already spent more time out of Washington than four out of the last 
five Congresses have spent in session.
  If the implications were not so serious, the President's wanderlust 
would be a mere fact for amusement, and we could all chortle a little 
bit about it. This is, after all, a President who has claimed an 
initiative for every problem and credit for every solution. Yet the 
President has not been around for much of the work. If America is to 
believe he is serious about Social Security reform and Medicare reform 
and health care reform, tax reform and a host of other problems, it 
would help if they could first believe he is going to be here so we 
could meet with him to get the work done.
  In 1992, then-candidate Bill Clinton excoriated President Bush for 
taking 25 trips to 60 countries from 1989 to 1993. He stated, ``It is 
time for us to have a President who cares more about Littleton, NH, 
than Liechtenstein; or more about Manchester than Micronesia.'' But 
once in office, guess what? Mr. Clinton took Air Force One and away he 
went, and he broke the Bush record. In less than 2 years, 1997 through 
1998, Clinton has spent almost as many days overseas as Bush spent 
during his entire term in office--79 versus 86 days. President Clinton 
has taken 32 foreign trips during his Presidency, 6 more than President 
Bush, to 78 countries, including 51 different ones. Trips to South 
Korea, Japan, Malaysia are already in the travel plans for next year.
  Mr. President, I could go on and on. The point is quite simple. As 
America has discovered, just because Mr. Clinton is in the country does 
not mean he is in the White House. The ``DC'' in Washington, DC, 
probably means ``Devoid of Clinton.'' While Clinton was able to leave 
his passport in the White House, he has made sure he has taken donor 
cards. As the press has noted, fundraising is prominent in his travel 
agenda.
  What is in the Washington Post today? The President was out once

[[Page S11406]]

again, Friday, fundraising. I understand now the American people are 
waking up a little bit. Here is what one of the picket signs said as 
the President entered a fundraiser in Ohio: ``Fundraising? Is this the 
people's work?''
  I am starting to ask the same thing. In 1997, President Clinton spent 
111 days on the road on domestic travel. He has already surpassed that 
in 1998 with 114 days. In 1997, he used at least 28 of those trips for 
fundraising. Through September of this year, President Clinton has 
already used at least 37 of those days for fundraising.
  That is part of the story, but here is the rest of the story that 
really concerns me. Do you know how much it costs to fly Air Force One? 
Mr. President, in 1992 figures it was $42,000 an hour. Mr. President, 
that is for you and the entourage. How do you balance that off between 
important domestic travel and fundraising? I hope you are keeping an 
accurate record, or the taxpayers will be paying a phenomenal amount 
for our President to be out of the White House.
  President Clinton was out of town 149 days in 1997; 155 days through 
September of 1998. The President spent a total of 304 days outside of 
Washington in just the last 21 months.
  The reason I come to the floor this morning to talk about the 
President's travel schedule is to bring some substance to the seaminess 
of a comment a week ago that this is the do-nothing Congress. You might 
have grounds to make that kind of an argument if you had been sitting 
down at the White House with a phone in your hand working with us to 
try to resolve the budgets, to try to get out our appropriation bills, 
to try to do the business of this Government. But you have chosen not 
to do that. You have been out and about the country and the world at a 
record pace, and at the expense of the American taxpayer.
  I understand by news reports today the President is in town for the 
week: Mr. President, welcome back to Washington. I understand that you 
are going to be here for a week, hopefully to work with us in 
finalizing the work of Congress to get our budgets complete so we can 
leave town--most important, adjourn the Congress and go home as the 
American people would expect us to do and turn off the expense clock.
  I also think it is important, Mr. President, that you do, in fact, 
recognize that our country and our world is just in a little bit of an 
economic crisis and you are finally willing to cancel a few travel 
schedules and stay home to see if we can work out our problems.
  So, Mr. President, welcome home. I am going to be watching very 
closely and giving reports from time to time as the President spends 
the American public's tax dollars to travel around the country. Here is 
the travel log, and it is growing. Here are the charts, and they are 
growing. Call us a do-nothing Congress, Mr. President, and I will call 
you AWOL because you won't be here; you will be off flitting around the 
country, either fundraising or staying out of Washington because the 
heat is too hot in the kitchen.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. HUTCHINSON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
Arkansas.

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