Posted by J. Todd Foster on March 28, 2016
A Minnesota congressman's trip to Africa is the most expensive privately financed trip of the year so far because he also had the nonprofit sponsor pick up the tab for his adult daughter.
It's the third time Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) has taken his daughter, Cassie, overseas on a sponsor's dime.
World Vision Inc. and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spent $27,357 to send the Paulsens to Kenya on March 5-11, according to his trip filing last week. It is the most expensive congressional trip thus far in 2016 and the 29th most expensive since 2000, according to LegiStorm records. The extra amount spent on the daughter for the six-day trip represents roughly the annual per capita income for 10 Kenyans, according to 2014 figures from the World Bank.
Airfare for the trip from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi was $12,121 each. Though details of the travel arrangements were not released, that's roughly the cost of a last-minute flight in first class from the Twin Cities to Nairobi.
That total did not include $1,442 for both Paulsens to travel on three charter flights within Kenya. Lodging for father and daughter cost a total of $1,093, and meals were $232 each. There were $116 in additional fees for both Paulsens.
In August 2013, Paulsen took the same daughter, who graduated last year from St. Olaf College, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Aspen Institute paid $15,364 for their travel.
And in August 2011, Cassie accompanied her father to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel. The American Israel Education Foundation paid $20,603 for the trip.
Paulsen has taken his wife, Carolyn Kelly Paulsen, on two overseas trips financed by sponsors: a $10,381 trip to Prague in August 1015, funded by the Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange and Ripon Society, and November 2009 to Tel Aviv for $4,700 funded by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.
Under congressional ethics rules, members can travel with companions who are at least 18 years old and "related to the traveler as spouse, parent, child or stepchild, grandchild, sibling or half-sibling, father-in-law, or mother-in-law. Fiancés/fiancées and unmarried significant others are not 'relatives' for purposes of these regulations."
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) made the same Kenyan voyage earlier this month at a total cost of $15,195, including $5,532 airfare each for Harris and his daughter, Irene.
The weeklong Kenyan trip focused on maternal and child health. Several congressional members visited three different Kenyan locations to see a wide range of health programs in action and to meet with community members and government officials.
Some people and organizations who "caught our eye" last week:
