Although the climate summit in Copenhagen took place in December, it has recently emerged that the large congressional delegation headed by Nancy Pelosi charged taxpayers some $1 million for the trip.
Newly filed congressional expense reports indicated that more than 150 people—including legislators, staff and even some family members—made the trip at a cost of $2,200 a day, CBS News reported.
Further CBS investigation found that 59 House and Senate staff flew commercial to the Danish capital, costing taxpayers $408,064, while the rest used three military jets, which cost $168,351 for the flight time.
This type of spending in the face of an escalating federal deficit and during a prolonged recession has spurred critics to question the judgment of the congressional leadership.
CNN’s Jack Cafferty wrote that "we have skyrocketing deficits and national debt in this country," and asked "where Nancy Pelosi gets her sense of entitlement to simply blow hundreds of thousands of dollars of our money at Christmas time so she and her colleagues can take a little trip to Copenhagen."
According to media reports, Pelosi has refused to answer journalists’ queries about the Copenhagen expenses and explain why the congressional delegation ended up being so large. 