rulemylife
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quote:
ORIGINAL: servantforuse
Maybe she could first get Nancy Pelosi to give up her private jet which is costing about 5 million a year to operate.
You really have to stop believing everything you hear is a fact:
Claim: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded the use of a "big fat 200-seat jet," which she routinely uses to travel between Calfornia and Washington.
  MOSTLY FALSE
Example: [Collected via e-mail, November 2008]
Madame Pelosi wasn't happy with the small private jet that comes with the Speaker's job, no, Madame Pelosi was aggravated that this little jet had to stop to refuel, so she ordered a Big Fat 200 seat jet that could get her back to California without stopping! Many, many legislators walked by and grinned with glee as Joe informed everyone that Nancy's Big Fat Jet costs us, the hard working American tax payers, thousands of gallons of fuel every week. Since she only works 3 days a week, this gas guzzling jet gets fueled and she flies home to California, cost to the taxpayers of about $60,000, one way!! As Joe put it, 'Unfortunately we have to pay to bring her back on Monday night.' Cost to us another $60,000. Folks, that is $480,000 per month and that is an annual cost to the taxpayers of $5,760,000!!!
Origins: This November 2008 item about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a revised and recirculated version of a rumor that originally surfaced in February 2007 (just after Pelosi assumed the Speaker of the House position), claiming that Pelosi spurned use of the Air Force C-20B Gulfstream III 12-seat jet that had been made available to her predecessor, Dennis Hastert, and instead demanded the use of a larger, more luxurious aircraft.
After the 9/11 terrorists attacks in 2001, President George W. Bush ordered that the Speaker of the House (next in line of succession to the presidency after the vice-president) be afforded secure government transportation on military aircraft when traveling on official business, and then-speaker Dennis Hastert often used a C-20B to travel back and forth between Washington to his home state of Illinois.
The current brouhaha kicked off when Speaker Pelosi inquired about the availability and rules regarding the use of military aircraft other than the C-20B (such as the C-21 or the C-37A). Critics quickly maintained that Pelosi had insisted on being allowed to use a "big fat 200-seat jet" (a C-32 Boeing 757, which the Air Force describes as seating up to 45 passengers) so that she could travel in luxury and reward her financial contributors with lavish trips.
...Ultimately it was the House sergeant at arms, Bill Livingood, who issued the request that, if necessary, the Speaker have access to a military plane meeting the non-stop security requirements (not specifically a "larger" plane or a C-32, but simply any suitable aircraft capable of making the California-Washington run non-stop) for travel to and from her home district:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not request a larger plane for personal use to travel cross-country without stopping, Bill Livingood, the House sergeant at arms, said.
Livingood said the request was his, and he made it for security reasons.
"The fact that Speaker Pelosi lives in California compelled me to request an aircraft that is capable of making non-stop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable," Livingood, who has been at his post for 11 years, said in a written statement.
"I regret that an issue that is exclusively considered and decided in a security context has evolved into a political issue," the statement said.
The Los Angeles Times elaborated on the relevant changes in air travel necessitated for the person holding the Speaker of the House position by the 9/11 terrorist attacks:
For years, speakers flew commercial like everybody else in Congress. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, it was deemed that anyone two heartbeats away from the presidency warranted a military jet.
Until now, the only speaker affected was Republican J. Dennis Hastert, who commuted to his Illinois district in small executive-style military jets.
But those aircraft require ideal weather conditions to make the cross-country trip without stopping to refuel.
The White House also acknowledged that the request for use of a plane capable of non-stop flights was appropriate:
"I have never asked for a larger plane," Pelosi said. "This is a myth that they are talking about on the floor [of the House]."
The White House also stood behind Pelosi.
"As speaker of the House, she is entitled to military transport and ... the proper arrangements are being made between the Sergeant of Arms Office in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of Defense," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
"We think it's appropriate," he added. "And so, again, I think this is much ado about not a whole lot. It is important for the speaker to have this kind of protection and travel."
...Eric Sharman, deputy chief of public affairs at Andrews Air Force Base, said that Pelosi has in the past used the C-20B and the slightly larger C-37A, depending on availability, and that these may or may not be able to make a nonstop cross-country flight depending on conditions. He confirms that Pelosi has used the C-32 once and only once, when no other planes were available.
In March 2009, Judicial Watch published various e-mails and memoranda related to Speaker Pelosi's use of military aircraft for other types of travel. As ABC News noted of those documents:
In fact, it appears that Pelosi uses military aircraft less often than her predecessor, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
The documents cover the period from January 2007 to November 2008 and show that Pelosi made the equivalent of 20 round-trips between Washington (Andrews Air Force Base) and San Francisco. That's an average of less than one round-trip per month. In contrast, former Speaker Hastert traveled home to his Illinois district virtually every weekend and, his former aides tell ABC News, he would almost always travel on military aircraft......
Last updated: 13 March 2009
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/pelosi/jet.asp
< Message edited by rulemylife -- 3/4/2010 4:43:21 AM >
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