![]() ![]() ![]() The spokesperson said that they use “one travel purchase card” for all travel expenses, such as airfare, parking, rental cars and gas. ![]() The role, the spokesperson said, requires “extensive official government travel throughout the state of Arizona and the rest of the country,” including travel costs for the congressman and four aides. In a statement, a Gosar spokesperson said taxpayer dollars were spent appropriately and that the higher spending had to do with his role as the chairman of the House’s Western Caucus from 2016-2020. “After he won his second congressional race, his office’s travel budget started to skyrocket with budget-busting charges on lodging, car rentals, and transportation.” “No one has spent more taxpayer money on travel in the last five years than Representative Paul Gosar,” said Karen Goll, executive director of the Moonlight Foundation. Yet an examination of Gosar’s expenses shows that his campaign finance expenses for travel over the past five years pale in comparison to what he has billed taxpayers. House ethics rules say lawmakers could be held “personally liable” for misusing funds and that their taxpayer-funded allowance may “not be used to pay for any expenses to activities or events that are primarily social in nature, personal expenses, campaign or political expenses or House committee expenses.” Lawmakers and political candidates are required to use their campaign money – raised from donors or their personal funds – to pay for their political travel. Yet they still managed to incur roughly $65,000 less than Gosar in their travel expenses paid for by US taxpayers over the past five years. Jonathan Ernst/Pool/Getty ImagesĪnd the closest spenders to Gosar were the two delegates from Guam who served over the past five years – and whose district is nearly 8,000 miles away from Washington or about four times the distance from the Capitol to Phoenix. Paul Gosar attends a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing in May 2021. Members in neighboring Arizona districts that are roughly the same size spent about 40% of that amount in that timeframe, the records show. Since 2016, Gosar has spent nearly $1 million in taxpayer dollars on travel – the most in the entire 435-member House – as he has traveled to events in Florida, Colorado, Texas and Europe, among other places, according to congressional records. Gosar’s office denies misusing taxpayer dollars. The analysis of his spending, reviewed by CNN, raises serious questions about the nature of the expenses since congressional rules do not require lawmakers to disclose anything more than the most basic of details: The amount, the date and the expense’s category. Yet Gosar doesn’t seem to practice what he preaches.Ī review conducted by the nonpartisan watchdog Moonlight Foundation of the self-described fiscal conservative’s spending shows he has spent more taxpayer dollars on travel than any other member of the House over the past five years – an unusual amount of money spent by a rank-and-file member who has served in the minority for part of that time and has built a scant record of legislative accomplishments. “The American people and taxpayers deserve nothing less.” “I will continue to cut wasteful federal spending wherever I can,” the Arizona Republican says on his official website. Paul Gosar boasts he’s been “relentless” in seeking to restore fiscal responsibility and “common sense” when it comes to the “bloated” federal government.
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