On the recordApril 17, 2012
Mr. Speaker, it's party time at the General Services Administration. The good times rolled in Las Vegas, where the GSA spent over $800,000 of tax money on a conference for 300 people. Now we learn that back in 2010, the GSA employees escaped their marble palace in Washington, D.C., and jetted off to Sin City for a taxpayer- funded high-dollar boondoggle. This so-called ``conference'' included a $31,000 reception, fancy awards, food, wine, lavish suites with bubbling hot tubs, clowns, swanky parties, iPod giveaways, and even a mind reader. This kind of lavish spending is exactly why Americans don't trust the government with their money. But what happened in Vegas just didn't stay in Vegas. A GSA whistleblower snitched off the bureaucrats-gone-wild bunch. Now, GSA officials are folding their cards, cashing in their chips, and resigning. The day of reckoning has come for those who played poker with the people's money. Public servants should not be public serpents. These government bureaucrats should pay out of their own pockets the taxpayer money they squandered in Las Vegas. And that's just the way it is. ____________________
