NATION : Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Admits Taxpayers Paid for 6 Hawaii Trips

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Henry K. Giugni, who administers a $115-million budget and is the Senate’s chief purchasing officer, acknowledged today he used taxpayer funds to pay for all or part of six trips to his native Hawaii in 1987 and 1988. But Giugni said he did nothing improper.

Giugni, the Senate’s second-ranking staff official, said in an interview that all his trips involved at least some official Senate business, including six during those two years to parts of the country other than his native state.

Giugni said he traveled to inspect security at senators’ home state offices, to check on a computer network he ordered installed, to provide security at last year’s two national conventions, and to meet senators’ state office staff members.

“I’ve got to be a people person,” he said. “They get to know who the sergeant-at-arms is when they pick up the phone. I don’t want to be a name on an ID card.”