XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: thief@senate.gov   
      
   WASHINGTON (CNN) —Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's campaign paid   
   for more than 12 years of wrongfully taxpayer-funded travel, her   
   office announced Friday.   
      
   Landrieu's campaign reimbursed the federal government $33,727   
   for chartered flights that were wrongly charged to her Senate   
   office. The payment comes a month after the Louisiana Democrat   
   ordered her attorney to audit her office's travel spending to   
   root out incorrectly-billed campaign travel.   
      
   Landrieu said the "mistakes," which go back to 2002, stemmed   
   from "sloppy bookkeeping."   
      
   "I take full responsibility. They should have never happened,   
   and I apologize for this," Landrieu said in the Friday statement.   
      
   CNN first reported in August that Landrieu used government   
   dollars to pay for a chartered flight that took her to a   
   campaign fundraiser last November. Landrieu's campaign spokesmen   
   said then that the charter company mistakenly billed Landrieu's   
   Senate office instead of her campaign and that mistake had   
   already been rectified.   
      
   The next day, Landrieu's office announced she would refund the   
   Senate for a separate $5,700 charter flight after CNN questioned   
   the expense. It was shortly after that report that Landrieu   
   ordered a full review of her travel expenses.   
      
   Landrieu said her office now has a new system successfully used   
   by other Senate offices to prevent future mistakes.   
      
   The reimbursed funds accounted for about 11 percent of her   
   Senate office's travel costs over the last 12 years.   
      
   Marc Elias, Landrieu's attorney who conducted the review, also   
   wrote in a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee that future   
   taxpayer-funded charter flights would be "cleared in advance by   
   counsel."   
      
   Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Republican challenging Landrieu for her   
   Senate seat, slammed Landrieu for only disclosing her travel   
   records since 2002, when the Federal Elections Commission   
   changed the rules on payment for campaign-related travel.   
      
   "No matter how Sen. Landrieu spins it, she billed taxpayers for   
   dozens of private jet flights since the turn of the century," he   
   said.   
      
   Cassidy called on Landrieu to release her nearly 18 years of   
   travel records as a senator.   
      
   "Prior to that (rule change), it was also illegal to bill   
   taxpayers for private flights. Given Senator Landrieu's own   
   admission of faulty oversight, how do taxpayers know that   
   problems did not exist prior to 2002?" Cassidy said in the   
   statement.   
      
   Landrieu's flight troubles first came in late July when USA   
   Today listed Landrieu as one of the Senate's most frequent   
   flyers after she billed the federal government more than $47,000   
   in chartered flights in 2013 alone.   
      
   http://www.wcvb.com/politics/senator-reimburses-feds-over-30k-in-   
   travel/28038016   
      
       
      
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