Sen. Chuck Schumer and his aides arrive in a small plane at Niagara Falls International Airport in 2005. Senators fly high on taxpayers' dime

Sens. John Cornyn and Chuck Schumer each spent more than $140,000 in taxpayer money on travel in the first half of the fiscal year — roughly 10 times as much as some of their thriftier colleagues.

Cornyn, a Republican, racked up the highest travel bill in the Senate by spending more than $38,000 on a St. Michaels, Md., retreat for 59 staffers and by taking expensive, multicity charter flights throughout his home state of Texas.


Schumer, a Democrat, ran up the second-highest bill by routinely flying private charters to cities in New York served by commercial airlines.

On Dec. 2, for example, Schumer spent $4,000 to take a private plane from New York City to Albany and back again. Delta and US Airways both fly that 140-mile route several times a day, with fares ranging from around $400 to less than $200 if purchased in advance.

Asked about the senator’s use of charter flights, Schumer’s office released a statement saying that he promised when he first ran for office that he would visit each of New York’s 62 counties every year — and that he’s kept that promise by using “a small, propeller plane to make as many as five stops across upstate New York and hundreds of visits each year.”

Chart Transportation costs for every senator



“Sen. Schumer takes outreach to his 19 million-plus constituents seriously, and his busy travel pace makes him one of the most accessible members of Congress,” Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon said in an e-mail to POLITICO.

Fallon said that Schumer usually travels with a personal aide and sometimes with one other staffer.

Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said his boss’s Texas-size airfare tab stems from the size of Texas itself.

The Politico 44 Story Widget Requires Adobe Flash Player

“It has to do with travel around Texas ... the realistic ability to use commercial flights to get him where he needs to be, when he needs to be there,” said McLaughlin. “I’ve driven from Austin to El Paso, which is easily an eight-hour drive. It’s unbelievable how far it is.”

But other big-state senators manage to get around much more cheaply. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison spent about $88,000 on travel in the first half of the fiscal year; Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski spent about $65,000 on transportation — less than half of what Cornyn spent.

The transportation expenditures are paid out of the senators’ official personnel and office expense accounts, the $2 million to $4 million each senator gets annually to cover the cost of travel, staff payroll and other expenses related to members’ official duties.

These figures do not — or at least should not — include money the senators spend on purely political trips, such as any Cornyn and Schumer may have taken as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and past chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, respectively. They also do not cover trips senators take as part of overseas congressional delegations, which are paid for by separate funds.

While office-account records show that Schumer and Cornyn are the biggest Senate spenders when it comes to transportation, they’re not the only members of the taxpayer-funded frequent-flier club. In the first half of the fiscal year, three other senators spent more than $100,000 each on transportation: Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.).

Although Murray flies commercial, her $122,000 travel tab is more than twice that of her Washington state colleague, Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell — largely because she returns to the state nearly every weekend.

“It’s a very large state, incredibly rural, and some major population centers are four hours away from each other,” said Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass, echoing an explanation voiced by a number of other Senate aides. “Sen. Murray believes that she and our staff can help our constituents best by going into the communities, talking to people on the ground. She puts a priority on being back in the state.”

The use of high-priced charter flights to travel on Senate business does not violate Senate ethics rules as long as they are paid for by the member’s office, but they can be a source of embarrassment for elected officials, especially during times of economic hardship.

“We are living in a world where members of Congress are treating themselves to an elite lifestyle on the taxpayers’ dime,” said Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste. “Charter flights should be the choice of last resort. It shouldn’t be used like a cab. It’s the most carbon-intensive and expensive way to fly.”

Between October 2008 and March 2009, records show, Schumer took 25 chartered trips to destinations within his home state, more than any other senator. Each trip carried a price tag of between $1,000 and $7,000, bringing the total cost of Schumer’s chartered travel to more than $100,000 in six months — approximately two-thirds of the $144,014 he spent on transportation in that time period.

In most cases, Schumer traveled to cities within 30 minutes of an international airport, some of them served by hourly commercial flights for as little as $49 each way.

Five years ago, during his first reelection campaign, Schumer answered accusations that he had spent more than $400,000 in taxpayer funds on chartered trips during his six-year Senate term. Then aides touted his 603-flight record as evidence that he was committed to his constituency, but they were also forced to contend with the “Charter Chuck” tag that Republican rivals hoped would stick during the campaign.

Corker and Bond have also paid thousands for chartered flights in fiscal year 2009; aides say they’re needed to cover long distances in the senators’ states. Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) also spent taxpayer money on charters, taking three trips — at more than $5,000 each — between Washington and his hometown of Charleston, W.Va. His senior colleague, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), does not use chartered jets to make the hourlong flight, Byrd’s spokesman said. Rockefeller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

On average, transportation costs account for less than 5 percent of a senator’s office expense budget; in most cases, the remainder of the funds is consumed almost entirely by staff payroll. In the first half of the fiscal year, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein spent a total of $2.1 million out of her office account, more than any other senator. Rounding out the top five were Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Hutchison, Cornyn and Schumer.