The US government spent 292 million dollars in traveling expenses for President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary and Vice President Al Gore in the past eight years, The Washington Post said Friday.
Citing a soon-to-be-released report on White House travel expenses drawn up by the General Accounting Office (GAO) at the request of six Republican senators, the daily said there was no similar accounting in the document for any previous US administrations, which had comparable traveling records.
Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said the amount of money spent by the Clinton administration on 159 foreign trips was "exorbitant," while an unnamed White House spokesman accused the Republicans of requesting the report for partisan purposes.
According to the GAO report, scheduled for release in September, Clinton's 27 foreign trips in the last three years alone account for 247 million dollars, or 85 percent of the total amount.
Hillary Clinton made 20 trips for 12 million dollars (four percent), and Gore made eight trips for 12.5 million (also four percent).
The Department of Defense covered most of the costs for the executive branch providing two VC-25 jets that serve as Air Force One -- the presidential plane, a number of cargo jets and aircraft refueling.
One expert said the actual travel costs are probably significantly higher if the expenses of secret service agents that travel with Clinton and his aides were included in the report.
While the GAO report provides no measure of comparison with previous US administrations, the daily points out that Clinton, in his first term in office, visited 49 countries over 81 days, very similar to his predecessor George Bush, who in his four-year tenure visited 50 countries over 86 days.
Ronald Reagan, by comparison traveled to 25 countries during his two terms in office.
Clinton's most expensive trip was his 11-day visit to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Oman and Switzerland in March that cost 46.5 million dollars -- it included 146 cargo flights to ferry equipment and the presidential limousine, the daily said quoting the GAO report - WASHINGTON (AFP)
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