Democratic Reps. Tom O’Halleran and Ruben Gallego are set to introduce an amendment to the annual defense bill Wednesday evening that would compel the Air Force to release how much it costs for President Donald Trump to visit Mar-A-Lago and his other properties.
According to text of the amendment obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, the amendment states that no later than 90 days from the passage of the bill, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, along with Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, will have to submit a report detailing how much presidential travel costs the Pentagon.
“Each such report shall include costs incurred for travel to a property owned or operated by the individual serving as President or an immediate family member of such individual,” the amendment states.
Both O’Halleran and Gallego have been extremely critical of what they’ve referred to as Trump’s “frivolous trips.”
“He’s going to supersede President Obama’s travel all eight years within a year, which is just absolutely ridiculous,” Gallego recently stated.
Trump has visited his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, seven weekends in the winter. He’s also visited Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney reportedly intends to introduce a substitute amendment that essentially will require planned travel costs to be listed in budget documents. O’Halleran and Gallego’s amendment, on the other hand, requires the Air Force to produce the figure of how much was actually spent at the end of the day.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told O’Halleran that the costs incurred by the Pentagon so far in transporting Trump around from January 20 to May 18 have amounted to $15.8 million.
But these Democratic representatives want a breakdown of the costs and ongoing reports.
The amendment is likely to face an impossible challenge in the House Committee on Armed Services, which is controlled by Republicans. Deliberation on amendments in the committee is likely to continue late into Wednesday all the way to early Thursday morning.
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