$50 Million in Trips for Lawmakers paid for by Private Interests

jasendorf · Jun 7, 2006

Private Interests Pay for $50 Million in Trips for Lawmakers
News: A new report lifts the lid on congressional influence peddling and junketeering.

By James Ridgeway

June 6, 2006

WASHINGTON---Congressional ethics, not gay marriage, ought to be a key issue in this falls campaign. After the Watergate scandals, the public elected members from both parties for their honesty and credibilitynot on the basis of partisan politics. Whether that will happen in November is hard to know at this stage, but day after day more news of malfeasance emerges from Capitol Hill. Yet nothing happens. The lobby scandal has resulted in no meaningful reform. Tom Delays departure has not noticeably resulted in a more ethical climate.

A new report out this week shows how private interests influenced Congress by bankrolling trips all around the world. According to the study, made by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern Universitys Medill News Service, over the 5 ½ year period from January 2000 through June 2005 congressional members and their staffs took at least 23,000 trips, valued at $50 million, all on the dime of corporations, non-profits and trade associations.

The members played golf at Pebble Beach, lounged around in Mexico, went shopping, participated in scholarly exchanges at a ski resort, hit Paris 120 times and traveled frequently to Hawaii and Italy.

Tom Delaybig surpriseled the pack, happily accepting more than half a million dollars worth of trips. Don Young, the Republican congressman from Alaska, was close behind him. And there are a few surprises: For example, Richard Lugar, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and generally regarded as above this sort of thing, accepted numerous trips.

Katherine Harris, the congresswoman and now Senate candidate from Florida, best known for her role overseeing the 2000 election as Florida's secretary of state, took a mystery trip in her home state. Though the forms dont list any sponsor, they show that she stayed at the swish Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach ($1,032 a night) on Restoration Weekend last year, and relate that on November 14 and 15, between 2 and 6 in the afternoon there was "Free time for swimming, golf, tennis, shopping, etc."

On the other side of the ledger, one of the top corporate sponsors of congressional trips turns out to be General Atomics, a relatively small California defense contractor that far outspent its industry competitors. The company makes the Predator reconnaissance drone, which became enormously popular with the military after 9/11 and has been celebrated as Americas most successful intelligence gathering tool in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The report notes that after five years of picking up lawmakers' travel tabs, in 2005 the company "landed promises of billions of dollars in federal business."

The report finds that three of the General Atomics trips were taken by Republican members of Congress (Bob Riley from Alabama along with Jerry Lewis and Howard McKeon of California), 67 by aides to Republican members, and 16 by Democratic aides. All in all staff in 51 congressional offices took trips sponsored by the company. On one trip a top Senate aide sat in on meetings with top officials of foreign governments interested in buying the Predator or other robot planes.

In some of these foreign visits the staffers would be joined by General Atomic officials. Representatives of US embassy sat in on some of the meetings. Randy "Duke" Cunninghams office took $53,000 in trips to Europe and Australia sponsored by General Atomics. In March Cunningham was sent to prison for 8 years for taking $2.4 million in bribes from two defense contractorsnot connected to General Atomics.

Lugar took $150,000 worth of trips, mostly sponsored by the Aspen Institute, which holds seminars for members of both parties and sometimes brings in foreign scholars. Lugar and his wife took one trip to Helsinki that cost $7,024 and another to Punta Mita, Mexico for $8,253. Asked by the Center to explain these trips, Lugar sent a written reply pointing out, he "counted on these [Aspen] programs to find co-sponsors for significant legislation. In addition, the programs allowed me to be able to make the case for what I felt was constructive progress with members of the Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Bush II Administrations."
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Link

When will we start holding these lawmakers accountable to us instead of the lobyists?

dmp · Jun 7, 2006

Look - PLEASE ! Stop your sensless bashing of EVERYTHING replublican -...uh...er...wait.....nevermind.

Annie · Jun 7, 2006

dmp said:

Look - PLEASE ! Stop your sensless bashing of EVERYTHING replublican -...uh...er...wait.....nevermind.

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Both sides are equally guilty and the average rep. was gone nearly 1 month in 5 years. Considering how many people we're talking about, this is a travesty!

dmp · Jun 7, 2006

That article IS a piece of shit though for only highlighting Republican mis-uses.

AND - there's no telling anything illegal happened; I'm not versed enough in Law to say the congressmen did anything legally wrong, or if any of them were unduly influenced by the trips.

dmp · Jun 7, 2006

According to the analysis, both Republicans and Democrats traveled frequently: Of the two dozen congressional offices on which trip sponsors spent the most money, 15 were occupied by Republicans. Of the 25 individual lawmakers who each accepted more than $120,000 worth of travel for themselves, 17 were Democrats.
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Yet NO specific Democrats mentioned in the op/ed by Mr. Ridgeway.

Curious, no?

dmp · Jun 7, 2006

Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, accepted more than $175,000 in travel for himself and his wife, Helen, attending an Aspen Institute session in Rome ($9,059), for example, and a National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas ($4,072). The Greens took five trips sponsored by the Association of American Railroads, at a total cost of more than $19,000.
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Green (D) accepts more than $175K in travel - and is not mentioned in the first article...

Lugar (R) took $25K LESS in valued travel yet gets his name mentioned FOUR times and warrants a paragraph.

Got Bias?

Annie · Jun 7, 2006

dmp said:

That article IS a piece of shit though for only highlighting Republican mis-uses.

AND - there's no telling anything illegal happened; I'm not versed enough in Law to say the congressmen did anything legally wrong, or if any of them were unduly influenced by the trips.
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You're correct with that analysis. This gives a more impartial look at what is up:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/powertrips/report.aspx?aid=799#

Privately Sponsored Trips Hot Tickets on Capitol Hill
Study finds almost $50 million spent on travel for lawmakers, aides

By Jim Morris

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2006 Over a 5½-year period ending in 2005, members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips valued at almost $50 million financed by private sponsors, many of them corporations, trade associations and nonprofit groups with business on Capitol Hill.

Who are the top travelers?

While some of these trips might qualify as legitimate fact-finding missions, the purpose of others is less clear.

A nine-month analysis of congressional disclosure forms for travel from January 2000 through June 2005 done by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service turned up thousands of costly excursions at least 200 trips to Paris, 150 to Hawaii and 140 to Italy.

Congressional travelers gave speeches in Scotland, attended meetings in Australia and toured nuclear facilities in Spain. They pondered welfare reform in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the future of Social Security at a Colorado ski resort, according to the forms.

Some trips seem to have been little more than pricey vacations often taken in the company of spouses or other relatives wrapped around speeches or seminars.

In many instances, trip sponsors appeared to be buying access to elected officials or their advisers. Some such as the Nuclear Energy Institute, Microsoft, Time Warner and The Walt Disney Co. clearly have products to sell or programs to promote. The motives of others the Congressional Institute or the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, for example are less obvious.

Congressional
Fact-Finding Missions?
Congressional ethics rules permit lawmakers and aides to take privately sponsored travel in connection with their official duties, but state that trips shouldn't be "substantially recreational in nature." Yet thousands of them approved in recent years have been to such prime vacation spots as Paris, Rome and the Colorado Rockies.

Source: U.S. House and Senate travel disclosure forms

The analysis found many apparent violations of ethics rules. Disclosure forms show, for example, that at least 90 trips, valued at about $145,000, were sponsored or co-sponsored by firms registered to lobby the federal government. Ethics rules do not allow lobbyists to pay for congressional travel.

The forms show that about 2,300 trips cost $5,000 or more. At least 500 cost $10,000 or more, 16 cost $25,000 or more, and the cost of one exceeded $30,000. There were $500-a-night hotel rooms, $25,000 corporate jet rides and other extravagant perks. Almost three-quarters of all trips were taken by aides, who often influence how their bosses vote, negotiate in committee and interact with other government officials. All told, the travelers were away from Washington for a minimum of 81,000 days a combined 222 years.

According to the forms, every bit of this travel was necessary.

"I think [legislators and staffers] are gaming the system," said James Thurber, director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies in Washington. "Education through travel is important, but it's just totally being abused. They give a one-hour speech and spend three days playing golf or tennis with their families."

In terms of private travel dollars spent, the office of Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who resigned as House majority leader in January after being indicted on charges of violating campaign finance laws, appears to have eclipsed all others. Records reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity show that DeLay and his staffers accepted about a half-million dollars in trips during the 5½-year study period, although the office of Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, was only about $8,000 behind.
'Special kind of access'

Even if no favors are done for a sponsor, said Dennis Thompson, a professor of government at Harvard University, the trips "violate the principle of fairness. In order to get this special kind of access, you have to pay a lot of money." (Harvard and its affiliates spent about $370,000 on more than 200 congressional trips, primarily for speeches and conferences during the study period, records show.)

According to the analysis, both Republicans and Democrats traveled frequently: Of the two dozen congressional offices on which trip sponsors spent the most money, 15 were occupied by Republicans. Of the 25 individual lawmakers who each accepted more than $120,000 worth of travel for themselves, 17 were Democrats.

Measured both in number of trips taken and in dollars spent, the House had more top travelers than the Senate. The 10 congressional offices that accepted more than 200 privately sponsored trips (counting both member and staff travel) all were in the House. The 11 offices with travel costs that exceeded $350,000 all were in the House. And the 10 most expensive trips identified in the Center's study also all were taken by members of the House or, in one instance, a House aide.

...
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MissileMan · Jun 7, 2006

dmp said:

That article IS a piece of shit though for only highlighting Republican mis-uses.

AND - there's no telling anything illegal happened; I'm not versed enough in Law to say the congressmen did anything legally wrong, or if any of them were unduly influenced by the trips.
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Even if it's not illegal, it points to the problem of elected representatives engaged in activity that is not representative of the priorities of their constituents. Yet another reason why there needs to be term limits.

jasendorf · Jun 7, 2006

dmp said:

AND - there's no telling anything illegal happened; I'm not versed enough in Law to say the congressmen did anything legally wrong, or if any of them were unduly influenced by the trips.
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To paraphrase Justice Stewart... I may not be well versed in the law when it come to influence peddling and bribery... but I know it when I see it.

GotZoom · Jun 7, 2006

jasendorf said:

To paraphrase Justice Stewart... I may not be well versed in the law when it come to influence peddling and bribery... but I know it when I see it.
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Well, perhaps then there needs to be an investigation into possible influence peddling and bribery.

Let's see..where can we start? How about those individuals who accepted over $120,000.00 in trips. Of the 25, 17 were Democrats? 68% of the offenders identified were Democrats. (umm..El Dorfo...that is what is called a "MAJORITY")

I trust you will be up at the front demanding this investigation?

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