According to an internal audit, the Department of Justice spent a whopping $7 million to plan, host or send employees to ten conferences over the last two years.

This included paying $4 per meatball at one swank dinner and providing an average of $25 worth of snacks around to each participant at a movie-themed party.

More than $13,000 was spent on cookies and brownies for 1,542 people who attended a four-day “Weed and Seed” conference in August 2005. A Community Oriented Policing Services conference in July 2006 cost more than $60,000, with butterfly shrimp, coconut lobster skewers and Swedish meatballs on the menu.
The report, which was ordered by the Senate Appropriations Committee, also found that three-quarters of the employees who attended the conferences demanded daily reimbursement for the cost of meals while traveling — effectively double-dipping into government money.