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» Pearce took $19,525 flight to Egypt | ABQ Journal
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., booked a $19,525 flight to Egypt last November, paid for by taxpayers, to visit members of the New Mexico National Guard, according to U.S. House foreign travel reports. …
An online search for round-trip airfare between Hobbs – Pearce’s hometown, where staff said the trip originated – and Cairo, leaving in less than two weeks with travel on same days of the week as Pearce, found tickets starting at $2,477.
That short-notice fare totals less than 13 percent of what taxpayers paid for Pearce’s trip. Fares for travel to Egypt leaving from Washington, D.C., were less than half that price, starting at $1,056. …
Meanwhile, Pearce has repeatedly warned that he believes financial belt-tightening is needed to catch up with Washington’s “spending problem.”
“Get yourselves efficient,” Pearce advised New Mexico federal workers in January amid a congressional fight on sequestration budget cuts that have since taken effect. “… I encourage the people in New Mexico to lead by example. Tighten your own belt and you’ll find yourself a winner as these cuts happen.”
The trip to Egypt wasn’t Pearce’s only trip to a foreign country within the past year. Other travel included trips to Ghana, the United Arab Emirates and Germany, although those trips had the international travel provided by the military, an option available to members of Congress.
Other members of New Mexico’s House delegation did not report any official foreign travel in 2012, according to House foreign travel records.