Congressional Perks: Congress spends on pricey airfare, lodging and private jets

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(The Center Square) – Members of Congress regularly commute between Washington, D.C., and their home districts with taxpayers paying the tab, but some choose to spend more than others – a few even charter private jets, an investigation by The Center Square found.

When it came to charter – or private airplane – travel, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., was the top spender with nearly $63,000 paid for charter flights since 2019. U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., was second, paying $18,295 in the same time period for five flights from Executive Aircraft Leasing, LLC., data from the Members' Representational Allowance data shows.

When it comes to overall travel expenses, the office of U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, was in the top three of both airfare and lodging for all of Congress since 2019, including some pricey reimbursements to himself – not airline or charter companies – for flights.

David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said there have to be better controls on travel to avoid abuses.

"Just because Congress has to do something, it doesn't mean there can't be some sort of oversight," he told The Center Square. "And I know this would probably take a lot of work, and maybe it can be done with AI at this point," but someone should be "reviewing flights and receipts to make sure that there's not excessive spending."

Johnson's office did not set up an interview with The Center Square, but his spokeswoman Kristen Blakely pointed out that his at-large district covers a lot of ground.

"Congressman Johnson’s district is enormous – it takes more than eight hours to drive from one corner of South Dakota to the other," she wrote in an email to The Center Square. "About once a year he charters a plane to conduct official business, after receiving the necessary approval from the House Administration Committee."

Charter flights costing more than $7,500 must be preapproved by the United States Committee on House Administration, according to the member handbook, but the detailed spending receipts and approvals are not available to the public. Congress exempted itself from the Freedom of Information Act.

Blakely provided Johnson's House administration committee approvals to The Center Square.

Johnson's at-large district is the third largest after Alaska and Wyoming, but The Center Square could only find one flight that appeared to be private travel for the Alaska at-large representatives going back to 2019. Wyoming had none.

All House offices which submitted reimbursement for charter, or private jet, flights since 2019 totaled nearly $135,000, according to The Center Square analysis of 3 million lines of House spending data. That included a $20,711 charge to Security Aviation by the House Committee on Natural Resources.

Williams questioned whether the number was much higher.

"I think that number is way low," he said. "I think there's something going on here, because I don't believe that they only spent $150,000 on charter flights."

Members' Representational Allowance data did not specifically have a category for private jets so The Center Square had to search the vendor field with popular terms like aviation, jet and charter and then find online references to confirm the services provided. 

Top travel costs

In between 2022 and 2024, Gooden submitted large airfare reimbursements four times totaling more than $35,000 but listed himself – instead of the airline or charter company – as the vendor, House spending account data analyzed by The Center Square shows. 

The reimbursements for a $9,719.37, $8,820.30, $8,357.96 and $8,178.21 each exceed the $7,500 limit that requires approval from the United States Committee on House Administration if the reimbursements were for private jets.

But Gooden's chief of staff contended that each reimbursement was for a number of flights in the date range in the House data.

"Sloppy journalists would disregard the service dates and not realize there are multiple expenditures reimbursed during these long windows of time that you misleadingly do not acknowledge," wrote Matt Esguerra, who initially wanted to talk off the record but The Center Square declined, needing attributable information for this story. "To suggest otherwise without understanding the House disbursement and reimbursement process is a violation of your organization’s code of ethics."

Esguerra would not provide receipts and detailed spending documents, writing that The Center Square was "expecting us to do your research for you."

House administration staff also would not provide any approvals or detailed reimbursement documents so it is unclear whether those flights were commercial or private, what the destination or business purpose was, and why Gooden filed that he – instead of an airline or credit card – was the vendor providing the flights. Esguerra did not respond to another email asking him to account for the spending of tax dollars.

Gooden wasn’t the only lawmaker who cited himself as the flight vendor but he had $290,000 in flights booked that way while the next largest was U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., with $158,000 since 2019 booked in her name, The Center Square’s analysis of House spending data shows. 

Titus spokesman Dick Cooper wrote in an email to The Center Square, “Similar to many of her colleagues of both parties, Congresswoman Titus uses her credit card to regularly travel between Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas so she can be with her constituents. In doing so, Congresswoman Titus complies with all House Administration rules when traveling in her official capacity.”

When asked if Titus keeps any points or cash back awarded when she pays for the taxpayer-funded flights on her personal card, he directed The Center Square to House rules that state, "Free travel, mileage, discounts, upgrades, coupons, etc., awarded at the sole discretion of a company as a promotional award may be used at the discretion of the Member or the Member’s employee. The [Committee on House Administration] encourages the official use of these travel promotional awards wherever practicable."

He would not say if Titus used them for herself or work travel.

Daniel Schuman, executive director at American Governance Institute, said Gooden using himself as the vendor raises questions after The Center Square told him about the House disbursement data.

"There is no way that makes any sense," he said. "Folks on the administration or House ethics committees should have caught it." 

Staff for both committees refused to address the issue when asked by The Center Square.

Top spending on flights and lodging

What is clear is that Gooden is one of the top spenders on airfare and lodging in the U.S. House despite his hometown in the district he represents situated just 55 miles from one of the nation's top airports, Dallas-Fort Worth. 

Not counting delegates from far-flung places like Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa, the top spenders on all airline travel in the contiguous United States since 2019 were Gooden at $336,000, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., at $279,000 and U.S. Rep. John R. Carter, R-Texas, at $261,000, an analysis by The Center Square showed.

The Committee on Natural Resources spent $323,000 in that time period, including the charter expense.

Waters staff did not return The Center Square's requests for comment, and Carter's spokeswoman Emily Taylor wrote in an email, "Congressman Carter does not have a residence in D.C., he sleeps on the couch in his office, so as soon as he’s done with votes, he grabs the first flight home to the people he represents."

Gooden was also third for individual lawmakers when it came to lodging, racking up $351,000 for places to say in the past six years, according to the analysis of data posted on the House statement of disbursements website. Topping him were Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who spent $451,000, and Jack Bergman, R-Mich., with $357,000 worth of places to stay.

The only House organization that topped their spending was the annual new member orientation travel. Bergman and Gosar's staff did not respond to requests for comment.

Williams said travel reimbursements are ripe for abuse if they're not properly monitored.

"Travel is fun if you can get someone else to pay for a first-class flight or a business class or, you know, looking at the last minute, that's really cool," he said. "I think at the end of the day, that's how they look at this."