NAIROBI, Kenya -- The African journ...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The African journeys of Sen Barack Obama are paid for by dint of U.S. taxpayers who foot the bills for inns food, ground transportation, commercial plane rides, military aircraft inflict at his disposal and Navy escorts who accompany him wherever he goes

The unusual amount of publicity surrounding Obama's trip to southward Africa, Kenya, Djibouti and Chad has raised a number of questions from readers about by what means all this travel is financed.

Congressional international travel is routine. There are couple ways most of the trips are paid for: at taxpayers on trips that are considered official House or Senate business and on private interests, be they corporations, trade associations, nonprofits or academic institutions.

Members of Congres have to disclose the sponsors of private trips and the require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones for which they have been reimbursed. Earlier this year, in the wake of scandals above privately funded travel, the House and Senate briefly considered a ban in the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following of lobbying and ethics reform legislation. House GOP leaders installed a temporary private travel ban to come by them through the November elections.

Obama is forward official government business. Here's a primer forward how it works:

- Obama is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He applied for and received approval for the trip from the committee chairman, Sen Richard Lugar.

Lugar wrote the Department of Defense and the State Department asking them to provide support for the travel. In congressional parlance, this sign of trip is called a CODEL -- short for congressional delegation.

- Senate authoritys allow Obama to bring along at regulation expense one staffer -- and that's Mark Lippert, his foreign relations adviser.

- Federal Election Commission lordships allow the use of campaign stocks to cover costs of official business not paid for at the government. The costs for Robert Gibbs, who wears pair hats as a government and political spokesman for Obama, are paid for through the Obama 2010 campaign foundation

- Obama's wife and sum of two units daughters flew from Chicago to Nairobi. Gibbs said Obama is picking up the take away froms personally.

- The State Department has a packet that covers expenses related to congressional travel, including riches a U.S. embassy spends to assist the member of Congres in the fatherland That covers vehicles, travel, security and related costs

- The Defense Department then authorizes the military to provide support and escort services. For CODEL OBAMA (the official name of this congressional trip), that includes the use of Army aircraft and the services of sum of two units Navy officers, Lt. Devere J machinations and Cmdr. Douglas Edson, who help coordinate the visit.

In addition, Obama invited a two-star Air Force general who is an African able to accompany him.

The Swahili-speaking major general, Scott Gration, is a native of St Charles, Ill., and exhausted much of his youth in Africa. His parents live in Wheaton and his father is a retired professor at Wheaton community

- Obama flew to Cape Town, southern Africa, on a KLM flight with Lippert and Gibbs. The Senate allows business class travel, which onward some airlines, such as KLM is really first class.

Gration and the Navy officers, operating beneath more spartan Defense Department guidelines, flew in coach.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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