Total Cost of President’s Trips Unknown, Aide Says : White House: Baker defends his own personal travel aboard Air Force jets at a cost to taxpayers of $371,599.

The White House said Thursday that it has no single figure for the amount of money the government spends on presidential travel each year, and President Bush dismissed congressional calls for such information as an old “dance” provoked by Congress’ own perks problems.

“As far as a single line item, how much it costs--it doesn’t exist,” said Gary Foster, deputy White House press secretary.

Nor, he said, is anyone in the White House assigned to determine the costs of flying Air Force One or the travel costs of White House aides who accompany the President.

The White House maintains, however, that the information is provided to Congress in a series of documents. Defense Department costs associated with presidential travel, for instance, are placed in the Pentagon budget, the White House says, and the State Department budget covers many of the costs of presidential missions overseas.

In a related development, Secretary of State James A. Baker III sought to turn aside questions about his personal travel aboard Air Force jets--mostly trips to his home state of Texas and to Wyoming, where he owns a ranch. The Milwaukee Journal, citing an unreleased draft audit prepared by the General Accounting Office, reported that 11 such trips over two years cost taxpayers $371,599.

“We have kept very, very complete records of all our travel and have fully reimbursed with respect to any travel that was personal,” Baker said.

When Baker reimburses the government for personal travel, however, he pays only coach fare plus $1, which means that his travel on military jets costs many times the amount that he pays. In this case, the 11 trips cost a total of $388,758 and reimbursements totaled $17,159, the newspaper said.

The question of travel costs has arisen in the wake of the President’s sharp criticism of congressional spending practices, and the public debate over the perquisites available to members of Congress. Vetoing the congressional plan to revitalize the economy, Bush on March 20 denounced the “congressional web of . . . perks, privileges, partnership and paralysis.”

But the spotlight Bush tried to shine on the House and Senate has been turned back on the executive branch, with a House subcommittee demanding details of White House costs and accounting procedures.

The White House refused on Tuesday to send officials to a subcommittee hearing, maintaining that it makes all necessary information on its spending available to House and Senate appropriations committees.

But on Thursday, Bush promised full cooperation, while asserting to reporters during a photo session at the start of a White House meeting that “Congress has all the information.”

“Every once in a while, they go through this dance there. They’re entitled to all kinds of information, and I will comply with whatever their requirements are,” he said. “Seems a little defensive to me, but they can review anything they want.”

According to Defense Department figures, the jumbo Boeing 747 that went into service 18 months ago as Air Force One costs about $25,000 an hour to fly--a figure arrived at by dividing the funds budgeted for the aircraft’s annual operations by anticipated flying hours. However, the White House has said repeatedly that it has no more accurate way to track the actual costs based on amount of fuel used, maintenance and crew salaries.

The hourly cost of presidential travel, however, would be considerably higher than the $25,000 figure because a similar back-up plane is generally flown to an airfield near the facility used by Bush, and at least one cargo plane carries vehicles for the presidential motorcade.

In addition, dozens of support staff, including Secret Service agents, communications officials and White House staff, visit cities on Bush’s itinerary in advance of the President, incurring transportation costs and hotel and meal bills paid by the government.

Asked why no single figure was available for such travel, Foster said that “there’s never been any need to calculate the whole figure.”

“There’s nothing embarrassing about it. And there’s nothing we’re hiding,” he said.