Holder's Caribbean Junket on Taxpayers' Dime

Eric Holder's Caribbean Trip an Ill-Advised Junket, Critics Say
Nov 17, 2011 4:45 AM EST

Attorney General Eric Holder is spending a week in the Caribbean in the name of improving law enforcement. But some in Congress say it’s the kind of junket that should be scrapped under Obama’s new austerity program.

(The Daily Beast) - Just days after President Obama announced a new austerity program to save billions in federal spending and travel, his attorney general, Eric Holder, is spending five days on the taxpayer’s dime hopping around Caribbean islands in the name of improving law enforcement in the region.

Holder’s stated mission for the trip was to sign law-enforcement agreements with authorities in the area and to inspect some condos recently seized by federal authorities in a Medicare fraud sting substantially smaller than the department’s usual pursuits prosecuting massive Wall Street fraud, terrorists, and murderers. He’ll also attend an international conference devoted to promoting democracy in the Western Hemisphere.

Lawmakers who huddled in a rainy, gloomy Washington on Wednesday waiting for an elusive deal to finally emerge to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit were not amused by the fact that Holder was staying in upscale hotels in the tropical climates of the Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Trinidad. Specifically, they questioned why Holder needed five days in the region.

“One would think that agreements could be signed on a more abbreviated schedule that saves the attorney general time he continually indicates he doesn’t have, as well as taxpayer money,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who recently tangled with Holder over a federal gun sting in which the government let weapons flow to Mexican drug cartels.