Biden hotel tab

Biden hotel tab, Vice President Joe Biden spent more than $1 million for two nights in hotels in London and Paris, according to government documents.

Biden and his hefty entourage spent the night at two five-star hotels in early February - one night at the Hyatt Regency London for a total of $459,338.65 and another night at the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand for $585,000.50.

The cost of the trips was first reported by the Weekly Standard, which discovered the official contract filing online, showing how much the government paid for the hotel bill.

A State Department official told ABC News that the costs are 'nothing out of the ordinary.'

'They are in line with high-level travel across multiple administrations,' the official said. 'The contract costs cover the entire range of support, including accommodations for military, communications, secret service staff, and other support professionals. Security experts are also required to travel in advance of the president or vice president. Safety and security are not negotiable.'

The cost of foreign trips is always a lightning rod for conservatives who balk at the idea of paying so much for government officials to travel.

In that vein, Twitter quickly lit up in a fury about the outrageous price tag, with many picking up on the irony that his expensive trip cam just three weeks before the much-reviled sequester budget measure went into effect.

'Bet that's a lot of White House tours,' tweeted Brad Dayspring, strategist for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, reffering to the fact that the Obama adminstration has stopping tours at the White House due to budget cuts.

Instead of focusing on the politics behind the spending, controversial political pundit Ann Coulter made a joke at Mr Biden's expense, saying that 'we need to keep him out of the mini-bar', ignoring the fact that the Vice President is a known teetotaler who abstains from alcohol.

The Paris expenditure came immediately before the Vice President spent a night in London where he met with Prime Minister David Cameron.

The contract for the London trip specifies that the Vice President’s crew required 136 hotel rooms for the evening, so it is fair to assume that they needed a similar- if not the exact same- number in Paris for the next leg of the trip.

The Vice President's wife, Dr Jill Biden, was traveling with him and their first stop was in Germany, before heading to Paris and finishing the tour in London on February 5.

Read more: MailOnline