9th Circuit proceeds with Hawaii trip - The Roger Hedgecock Show - Talk Radio

9th Circuit proceeds with Hawaii trip

Sens. Sessions, Grassley had complained that the conference could cost $1 million or more at a time of fiscal crisis.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals told Senate Republicans late last week that it would go through with a conference in Hawaii later this month, despite GOP complaints that the conference could cost $1 million or more at a time of fiscal crisis.

In an Aug. 3 letter to Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said it would cost too much to cancel at this point. However, he said the Ninth Circuit would try to be more cost-conscious going forward.

"While it is too late to change course this year, the Ninth Circuit has moved to reschedule its 2013 conference to 2014," he wrote in his letter, which was released Wednesday. "And we will continue to manage future events in the most cost-effective manner possible.

"In hindsight, had we foreseen the nation's current fiscal problems, we may have chosen a different site for this year's conference," he added.

In addition to the letter, Kozinski attached the resort contract for the Hawaii conference later this month that Sessions and Grassley requested. GOP staff on the Budget Committee said the information it has seen so far shows the Ninth Circuit could have been pared back in May, when they started asking questions about it, with minimal charges.

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