Congress Went to Denmark, You Got the Bill

FILE - This combo made from undated file photos provided by the Chicago Police Department shows from left, Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Fla., Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, N.H., and Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The three NATO summit activists will appear in a Chicago courtroom Tuesday, June 12, 2012, to face terrorism-related charges that accuse them of plotting to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters and other targets with Molotov cocktails. (AP Photo/Chicago Police Department, File)

Thanks to recently filed Congressional expense reports there's new light shed on the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Denmark and how much it cost taxpayers.

CBS News Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports official filings and our own investigation show at least 106 people from the House and Senate attended - spouses, a doctor, a protocol expert and even a photographer.

Million Dollar Congressional Trip
Read the Congressional Expense Report

For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That's $2,200 a day - more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment.

CBS News asked members of Congress and staff about whether they're mindful that it's public tax dollars they're spending. Many said they had never even seen the bills or the expense reports.

Copenhagen Congressional Junket

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is a key climate change player. He went to Copenhagen last year. Last week, we asked him about the $2,200-a-day bill for room and food.

"I can't believe that," Rep. Waxman said. "I can't believe it, but I don't know."

But his name is in black and white in the expense reports. The group expense report was filed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She wouldn't talk about it when our producer tried to ask.

Pelosi's office did offer an explanation for the high room charges. Those who stayed just two nights were charged a six-night minimum at the five-star Marriott. One staffer said, they strongly objected to no avail. You may ask how they'll negotiate a climate treaty, if they can't get a better deal on hotel rooms.

Total hotel, meeting rooms and "a couple" of $1,000-a-night hospitality suites topped $400,000.

Flights weren't cheap, either. Fifty-nine House and Senate staff flew commercial during the Copenhagen rush. They paid government rates -- $5-10,000 each -- totaling $408,064. Add three military jets -- $168,351 just for flight time -- and the bill tops $1.1 million dollars -- not including all the Obama administration officials who attended: well over 60.

In fairness, many attendees told us they did a lot of hard work, and the laid groundwork for a future global treaty.

"It was cold… I was there because I thought it was important for me to be there," Rep. Waxman said. "I didn't look at it as a pleasure trip."

But considering the size of the deficit, and the fact that that no global deal would be reached -- critics question the super-sized U.S. delegation -- more than 165 -- leaving the impression there's dollars to burn. In this case, more than a million.

(CBS)

Attendees
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Pelosi's husband
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
Rep. George Miller
Rep. Henry Waxman
Rep. Ed Markey
Markey's wife
Rep. Charles Rangel
Rep. Bart Gordon
Rep. James Sensenbrenner
Sensenbrenner's wife
Rep. Sander Levin
Rep. Joe Barton
Barton daughter
Rep. Fred Upton
Rep. Earl Blumenauer
Rep. Diana DeGette
Rep. Jay Inslee
Inslee's wife
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito
Rep. Moore Capito husband
Rep. John Sullivan
Rep. Tim Ryan
Rep. GK Butterfield
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
Gifford's husband
Rep. Marsha Blackburn
President Obama
Sen. James Inhofe
Sen. John Kerry
Stacee Bako
Don Kellaher
Wilson Livingood
Brian Monahan
John Lawrence
Karen Wayland
Drew Hammill
Kate Knudson
Bridget Fallon
Bina Surgeon
Mary Frences Repko
Nona Darrell
Tony Jackson
Josh Mathis
Phil Barnett
David Cavicke
Lisa Miller
Peter Spencer
Andrea Spring
Lorie Schmitt
Greg Dotson
Alex Barron
Christopher King
Shimere Williams
Tara Rothschild
Margaret Caravelli
Gerry Waldron
Ana Unruh-Cohen
Jeff Duncan
Eben Burnham-Snyder
Joel Beauvais
Michael Goo
Tom Schreibel
Harlan Watson
Bart Forsyth
Ed Rice
Steve Rusnak
Carey Lane
Matt Dempsey
Dempsey wife
George Sugyama
Tom Hassenbohler
31 additional unnamed Senate staff

State Dept:
Special Envoy Todd Stern
Secretary Hillary Clinton
Pershing Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change
Maria Otero, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs
Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, Deputy Permanent Rep. United States Mission to the U.N.
Daniel Reifsnyder, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment
Lilburn Trigg Talley, Director of the office of Global Change
Sue Biniaz, Deputy Legal Adviser
William Breed, Director of Climate Change Programs USAID.
Energy Dept:
Steven Chu, Energy Secretary
Jean Chu, Spouse of the Energy Secretary
Rod O'Connor, Chief of Staff
Amy Bodette, Special Assistant to the Secretary
David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs
Rick Duke, Dep. Assistant Sec. for Policy and International Affairs
Holmes Hummel, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Policy and
International Affairs
Elmer Holt, Economist in the Office of Policy and International Affairs
Matt Kallman, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Policy
and International Affairs
Dan Leistikow, Director of Public Affairs
Devin Hampton, Lead Advance Representative
Interior Dept:
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
Deputy Secretary David Hayes
Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland
Science Advisor Kit Batten
Senior Advisor of Global Change at USGS Tom Armstrong
USGS Director Marcia McNutt
Deputy Communications Director Matt Lee-Ashley
Jack Lynch (Security)
Dave Graham (Security)
Mike Downs (Security)
Director of Advance Tim Hartz

EPA:
Security Officer # 1 Security, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
Marcus McClendon Director of Advance, Office of the Administrator
Security Officer # 2 Security, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
Jennifer Jenkins Physical Scientist, Climate Change Division, Office of Air and Radiation COP 15 Negotiator
Shalini Vajjhala Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of International Affairs COP-15 Negotiator
Maurice LeFranc Senior Advisor, International Climate Change, Office of Air and Radiation COP-15 Negotiator
Kimberly Todd Klunich Technical Expert, Climate Change Division, Office of Air and Radiation COP-15 Negotiator
Leif Hockstad Environmental Engineer, Climate Change Division, Office of Air and Radiation COP-15 Negotiator
Seth Oster Associate Administrator, Office of Public Affairs
David McIntosh Associate Administrator, Office of Rep.ressional and Intergovernmental Relations
Michelle DePass Assistant Administrator, Office of International Affairs
Security Officer # 3 Security, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
Lisa Jackson Administrator, EPA
Gina McCarthy Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation

White House Executive Office staff:
From the Office of Energy and Climate Change:
Heather Zichal
Tony Russell
Jake Levine
Joe Aldy

From the Office of Science and Technology Policy:
John Holdren
Steve Fetter
Shere Abbott

From the Council on Environmental Quality:
Nancy Sutley
Amy Salzman
Jess Maher

National Security Council:
Mike Froman
Ed Fendley

Communications:
Ben LaBolt

[DaleneO]

The Speaker of the House of the USA told reporters she would answer no more questions with regard to her meetings with the CIA and waterboarding, after accusing the CIA of lying, and as far as I know she has not. Now she says she will answer no questions with regard to the $1,000,000+ boondoggle, and she doesn't!! How is it she decides, missing any National Security issues, what she will answer to we the people about? I'm still reeling from The Speaker talking to a group of ILLEGAL aliens in a church and telling them it was Un-American for U.S. Ice agents to check them out, and later in the same conversation telling them they were the REAL patriots!? She is truly outragious.

[richardindenver]

Irate ! And these "representatives" of ours are using our tax dollars like momopoly dollars. THANK YOU CBS !!! THANK YOU AGAIN. YOUR REPORTING IS ONE OF THE BRIGHT SPOTS IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA. THANK YOU!!

[vizslagirl16]

Ummm... hi, I'm 16 and am wondering why the people don't vote on the salaries of elected officials? And why congress and the house arn't limited to 2 terms like the president. In case I totally didn't pay attention in political science, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't our government supposed to be made up of 3 EQUAL branches that form a checks and balances system? It seems to me that as soon as they're sworn in, they seem to forget about the "We the people..." and go for "ME ME ME!!!" Seriously, I know 5 yearolds who are in a better frame of mind. Personally, I think we should clean house, and possibly make people take a valid history test to be able to vote, I mean, if you don't understand why we have the government that we have, and why we've suceeded (up until the spending fiasco that is) then you probably shouldn't try to vote on something you have no clue about. Just something I was thinking about...

[sfcmac2]

Over a million bucks to attend a "climate change" summit that was based on concocted data by a group of Al Gore-supported scientific scam artists.

[Patriotson]

Copenhagen represents all that is wrong with this congress and elected government. Taxpayers are less expensive food products and congress is eating higher on the hog at our expense. Each of these people should be required to pay back the taxpayer for this unnecessary trip which was a failure before it got started. Why can we not get a responsible congress to stop this irrisponsible spending?

[noloyalisti]

I own and run a corporation. My corporation is involved with environmental cleanup projects. We do not have our own lobbyists, a plane or a yacht or bank accounts in the Caymans. I took a 50% pay cut while our employees health insurance plan rose 20% for less benefit.

Big corporations and big money own and run the media, the military and the government for huge profit. They pay coporate lobbyists HUGE money to buy off our government for huge profit. The top 1% in American own more than 50% of the corporation stock.

They also own the GOP who represent maybe 5% of the population: the corporations and the rich. And the rest of us get corn poled.

[albertoVO55]

I have the answer to your problems...MOVE OUT THE COUNTRY!!!

[rzezz]

86% of statistics on the internet are made up.

BTW, what's your profit margin? It sure as hell better be lower than evil Exxon's 7.8%.

[Union76]

Some people think this is a twitter board. You should make a comment and reply to others, not make 20 posts, how can we read everyones comments when one or two people hijack the forum.

[albertoVO55]

Sadly, it's been like this for 2 days now. Nothing but BS on top of BS on top of BS. They won't listen, so don't bother trying to reason with them.

[noloyalisti]

The Supreme Court should be impeached. They showed their true colors as corporate tools, supporting their human rights at the expense of We the People.

But before they are removed we should have them check to make sure that all the past Presidents still alive have valid birth certificates. I think that Cheney for example was not even born on THIS PLANET, he is a real alien. How else would you explain his strange and deadly behavior?

[rzezz]

Do you know what a corporation is? With all your "corporate" talk, I'm in serious doubts.

[jt92202]

When was Cheney president? Did I sleep through his term!!

[noloyalisti]

But the GOP doesn't believe in
1) fiscal responsibility
2) science and man made global climate change
3) peace
4) womens, civil or human rights (except for white Christian men)
5) religious or academic freedoms

Let's give the country back to the radical obstructionists who revere corporations

[rzezz]

You just listed 6 lies. Ignorance is strong with you. Good job.

But, to play your game of off the wall, 0.00001% stereotypes, 10 things DEM's do not believe in:
1)Fiscal responsibility
2)Faith
3)Science that does not back their agenda
4)Peace
5)Equal rights for all (yes, including white men)
6)Religious freedoms (people that go to church shouldn't hold an office)
7)Hard work
8)Being held responsible for their actions
9)Where electricity comes from
10)Thermodynamics

[albertoVO55]

In the last 24 hours, this forum has really gotten stuck in the mire of rationalistic partisan bulls**t. The bottom line is THIS folks...
People who had NO BUSINESS being in Denmark had the taxpayers PAY for their trip. The greatest offender of the lot was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. especially when she's RICH ENOUGH to pay for her husband's trip! There's no rational argument to justify the presence of husbands, wives and children at a climate change summit. Yes, $1,000,000 may be a "drop in the bucket", but it's MY TAXES (and yours) that fill it. "Rational lies" just don't cut the mustard on this one, folks. That's it!!! I'm out!