Report: Reid’s wife took overseas trip at taxpayers’ expense

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Landra Reid, wife of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and three other senators' wives returned from a congressional trip overseas in a commercial airliner at a cost to taxpayers of $10,610, a published report said.

The wives of Democratic Sens. Reid, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut accompanied their husbands on a military jet to Egypt, Nepal, India and Pakistan from Jan 6-17. The U.S. delegation met with high-level leaders in Pakistan and India, long-time rivals with new nuclear arsenals. They were the first members of Congress to visit Pakistan since Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf seized power in the nation in October 1999.

Wives often accompany their senator husbands on such trips but are required to pay for their own expenses such as meals and taxis, although they are allowed to fly free on military planes with their husbands and stay with their husbands in hotels.

But the Air Force C-9 jet ferrying the U.S. delegation broke down before its final leg back to America, the Reno Gazette Journal reported. It would take several days to fix so military officials made a quick decision to send the senators -- and wives -- back on a commercial Swissair flight. The senators and their spouses rode in business class seating, the paper reported.

"The military made a determination that it wouldn't be safe for the wives to stay behind in Egypt," Reid spokesman Mark Schuermann told the Sun. "So the military bought the tickets and Sen. Reid stands by that. They could have waited two days, but the senators had to come back. Are you just going to leave the wives there? You just can't leave U.S. senators' wives sitting in Cairo."

A Pentagon spokesman said the Department of Defense had promised air transportation to the entire group, so the department paid the cost of the wives.

The Air Force never raised the issue of the wives paying their share of the airfare, Schuermann said.

Schuermann said the trip was vital to promoting peace and nuclear nonproliferation. The senators' discussions paved the way for President Clinton to make a controversial trip to Pakistan several months later, Schuermann said.

The senators' wives play an important role in overseas trips, Schuermann said. They help strengthen ties with foreign leaders and help put a "human face" on negotiations even if it is in social settings, Schuermann said.

One Washington watchdog group disagreed.

"I don't mean to diminish the importance of this trip, but the Air Force shouldn't pay to fly around the wives of senators when there are more important uses for this money," Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project, told the Gazette Journal.

Sun reporter Benjamin Grove contributed to this story.