In early February Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn convened a hearing in his Government Affairs Subcommittee to examine wasteful spending at the agency level. The hearing proved enlightening:

In his opening statement, Coburn revealed that since 2000, federal agencies have spent more than $1.4 billion underwriting and sending federal employees to conferences (many of which are located in lavish tropical destinations). Even more shocking, noted Coburn, was that “this increase occurred during a challenging time for our country.” It is also ironic that these costs are increasing at the same time that telecommunication technologies are getting more and more reliable reducing the need for travel.

Testifying before Coburn’s subcommittee was a former Department of Health and Human Services staffer Scott Evertz, who bravely played the role of whistle blower. Evertz told the subcommittee that during his tenure at HHS, he had “witnessed an attitude of entitlement concerning international travel by many bureaucrats and downright arrogance when senior officials attempted to curtail – or even question – the travel of some individuals.”

Now, months after the hearing, Coburn's work is bearing additional fruit. Via the Oklahoman's subcommittee website we learn that the Government Accountability Office has just released a report detailing "how tens of millions of your tax dollars have been wasted on first-class, international travel by diplomats and bureaucrats, without going through the proper vetting process and without adequate internal financial controls."

Update: Direct link to the PDF of the report here, for the impatient. I read through it myself; good stuff, especially the end part where State provides their (weak) rebuttal of the report's points... - NZ