Politics

Oversight Report: White House Orchestrated Taxpayer-Funded Trips to Help Republican Candidates

By Karina

Today, the House Oversight Committee released a draft report finding “that the White House used the political affairs office to orchestrate an aggressive strategy to use taxpayer-funded trips to help elect Republican candidates for public office.” Over the course of the Committee’s investigation, they found that “from January 1, 2006, until the mid-term elections on November 7, 2006, cabinet secretaries and other senior officials traveled to over 300 events recommended by the political affairs office. All of these events were held with Republican candidates, and in most cases, the travel costs were paid for with federal funds.”

The Committee began this investigation after their hearing on “Allegations of Misconduct at the General Services Administration” disclosed that Scott Jennings, the Deputy Director of the Office of Political Affairs, “displayed PowerPoint slides to the GSA officials describing the top 36 House Republicans the White House wanted to defend in the 2008 election, the top 20 House Democrats the White House wanted to defeat, and a slide depicting the “Battle for the Senate 2008.”

Read the draft report, The Activities of the White House Office of Political Affairs >>

Appendix A: White House Memoranda (5 MB)
Appendix B: Events Spreadsheet (217 KB)
Supporting Documents (16 MB)

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 15, 2008 (boomark / email).