Rep. Mica: GSA Officials Took $800,000 Junket to Hawaii

The lavish $800,000 trip that General Services Administration (GSA) officials took to Las Vegas in 2010 isn’t the only example of their wasteful travel spending, says Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. The chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee said Wednesday that a continuing investigation into wasteful spending by the GSA’s Inspector General (IG) has found that several GSA officials flew to Hawaii last year for a week to attend a one-hour ribbon cutting ceremony, The Hill reports.

The House will hold two hearings next week about the GSA shenanigans that resulted in the resignation of the agency’s administrator Martha Johnson last week. The hearings will be held by the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Monday and one of Mica's subcommitteesEconomic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, Tuesday.

"The Las Vegas conference was the tip of the iceberg, and every new example demonstrates the mind-boggling culture of waste and blatant disregard for the taxpayers' money within GSA," Mica said.

He released a partial transcript of an interview with a GSA employee who said several staffers went to Hawaii for a one-hour ribbon cutting ceremony and returned seven days later.

"That was the official reason?" the IG queried. "Yeah," the staffer replied, saying these kinds of trips are "fairly frequent." When the IG suggested that the employees were working hard, the GSA employee responded, "I doubt it."