January 11, 2010 Breaking News Update

An exclusive report that will air tonight on CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC reveals the alarmingly high number of members of Congress who got an all-expense paid trip to Denmark — on your dime!

Nancy Pelosi was at the summit. She called the shots on who got to go. Among them, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and embattled Chairman of the Tax Committee Charles Rangel They were joined by 17 colleagues from both parties: Democrats: Waxman, Miller, Markey, Gordon, Levin, Blumenauer, DeGette, Inslee, Ryan, Butterfield, Cleaver, Giffords, and Republicans: Barton, Upton, Moore Capito, Sullivan, Blackburn.

The House delegation was so large, it needed three military jets: two 737’s and a Gulfstream Five. Up to 64 passengers

Add Senators and staff, most of whom flew commercial, and there were at least 101 Congress-related attendees. All for a summit that failed to deliver a global climate deal. As a perk, some took spouses, since they could snag an open seat on a military jet or share a room at no extra cost to taxpayers.

Congresswoman Giffords and her husband,Moore Capito and her husband, Markey took his wife as did Sensenbrenner. Congressman Barton– a climate change skeptic– even brought along his daughter.

Three military jets at $57-hundred dollars an hour. ($5,740) Dozens flew commercial at up to two thousand dollars each. More than 300 (321) hotel nights booked - the bulk at Copenhagen’s five-star Marriott. Meals add tens of thousands more.

Nobody would defend the super-sized Congressional presence on camera. One Democrat said it showed the world the US is serious about climate change. And all those attendees who went to the summit rather than hooking up by teleconference? They produced enough climate-stunting carbon dioxide to fill 10,000 Olympic swimming pools. (40,500 tonnes/source: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change)