By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., said he was unsure how much leftover per-diem travel money he had spent while on foreign trips, but asserted that every dollar was used to cover legitimate travel expenses.
In an interview outside a meeting of the Beaufort County Democratic Party’s executive committee on Saturday morning in Washington, Butterfield said he was “very upset” about an article in The Wall Street Journal which reported that Butterfield and other members of Congress had pocketed travel pay that shook out of the pot after anticipated costs.
The Washington Daily News asked Butterfield how much “extra” money he had spent while on these trips.
“I have not maintained any receipts because I was not required to maintain any receipts,” he said. “I have retained no detailed accounting of how the money was spent. I just have a gut feeling. I am satisfied that most, if not all, of my per diem was used for legitimate travel expenses. I have not maintained detailed records because I was not required to do so.”
Though he said the current per-diem accounting would be more cost effective than hiring additional staff and instituting new measures to track congressional travel spending, Butterfield indicated the issue of travel pay may be studied in Congress.
Butterfield serves on the House ethics committee.
“Whether that should be revisited, probably yes, it needs to be studied,” he said of the per-diem matter. “And I can tell you that it is going to be studied, in light of this controversy, to decide whether members of Congress need to go on actual reimbursement or whether it needs to continue to be a per diem.”
Butterfield also answered a query about his campaign’s acceptance of $4,000 from the National Leadership Political Action Committee, which has been affiliated with embattled U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.
Butterfield’s election-year challenger, Washington Republican Ashley Woolard, has accused the incumbent of taking a “political bribe” from Rangel, whom Butterfield had to judge as part of a House ethics investigation into Rangel’s travel and assets.
In a late-July statement, Butterfield explained that the PAC’s $4,000 was accepted by his campaign before his appointment to the ethics committee and that, “The bulk of the donations — $3,000 — came nearly five years ago during the 2004 election cycle.”
Butterfield was elected in 2004.
A former N.C. Supreme Court judge, Butterfield said he had an unblemished judicial record before taking his current office.
“I wrote the decision,” he said of the ethics committee’s rebuke of Rangel’s questioned travel to the Caribbean.
This written opinion led to Rangel’s resignation as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, he said. He insisted that he could judge Rangel fairly despite the $4,000 contribution from the Rangel-tied PAC, and suggested he’d already done so. The ethics committee will meet this week to discuss charges against Rangel, Butterfield pointed out.
The campaign-finance issue was broached by Woolard during a series of news conferences in late July. Woolard has demanded that Butterfield return the $4,000 his campaign took from the PAC.
On Saturday, Butterfield said the real question was whether he should recuse himself from the ethics committee’s discussions of Rangel’s conduct, and he made it clear he’s convinced that he should not step aside.
He did say he would recuse himself from the committee’s deliberations on per-diem pay.
Before the interview, Butterfield addressed around 26 guests and members of the executive committee at the Beaufort County Courthouse.
The congressman echoed the Obama Administration’s case against the Republicans, making frequent references to the deficit accumulated by the federal government under former President George W. Bush.
Outside the courthouse, near a parking lot on the opposite side of Second Street, about 10 demonstrators held signs supporting Woolard and opposing Butterfield. One of the demonstrators was Lynn Childes of New Bern, who held a sign stating, “Butterfield must go!”
“Time to get rid of long-term crooks at every office we have to,” she said.
Larry Herwig, a volunteer with the Woolard campaign, said he’d hoped to have someone from his group gain access to the Democrats’ meeting. He said the general public was barred from the gathering.
Three members of the local media were allowed to attend the Democrats’ session, but none of the protesters were seen inside the courthouse.
“American government is supposed to be open to the public,” Herwig said.
Woolard was unable to attend the protest because of a previously scheduled appointment in Greenville, Herwig added.