Report: Lawmakers travel lavishly

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. lawmakers traveled around the globe during Congress' winter recess on VIP luxury Air Force jets, the U.S. television program Inside Edition says.

Using hidden cameras, a reporter and producer from the syndicated show reported that the members of Congress frequently brought their spouses along on the trips to European destinations, where they stayed in upscale hotels.

In one trip taken last week, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., led a delegation of seven lawmakers, including four U.S. senators and three U.S. representatives, as well as five wives, to Israel, Syria and Vienna, the show's producers said.

Cardin and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were in the Middle East on a fact-finding mission and on Feb. 18 met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who indicated he wanted to find ways to improve relations with the United States, the Voice of America reported.

Inside Edition also said it followed U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., who led another delegation of several lawmakers and some wives to Brussels, Paris and Vienna, where producers said they "watched as several of the Congressional spouses were chauffeured around while out on a shopping spree, and were escorted around by government aides."