MEDILL NEWS SERVICE > Power Trips: Congress hits the road

Lawmakers report fewer privately sponsored trip in 2006, but find new ways to travel
By BEN WINOGRAD and DALIA NAAMANI-GOLDMAN
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - Public unease over corruption on Capitol Hill didn't just affect results at the ballot box in 2006. It also helped lead to steep declines in the level of privately sponsored travel reported by lawmakers and their staffs, according to a review of congressional travel by Medill News Service.

While the number and value of reported trips dropped dramatically, lawmakers and their aides still found ways to fly outside congressional disclosure requirements. In particular, numerous lawmakers paid for trips through campaign treasuries and political action committees, called leadership PACs - in some cases reimbursing travel costs to the same corporations that had already made donations to their campaigns or PACs.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the outgoing chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is an example of both trends. In 2004 and 2005, Barton and his aides reported accepting $344,000 in travel expenses from private sources, the most of any office in Congress. Through the first eight months of this year, the figure dropped to $55,000, and Barton himself has not reported taking a privately sponsored trip since Nov. 29, 2005.

But Barton did not merely linger in Washington or in his district near Dallas. On Sept. 29, he took a private jet chartered by BellSouth Corp. to the Florida Keys from Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Accompanying Barton on the flight were his chief of staff and three lobbyists, one from AT&T and two connected with BellSouth, said BellSouth spokesman Bill McClesky.

The week after the trip, BellSouth received a $7,123 check from Barton's leadership PAC, known as the Texas Freedom Fund, which McClesky said covered Barton's and his chief of staff's share of the charter fee. The Texas Freedom Fund had itself received $10,000 in donations in the previous election cycle from a political action committee funded by BellSouth employees.

By using election accounts to cover the cost of travel, members of Congress have found new ways to take the same trips once paid for directly by private sources, said Paul Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists.

"It's all legitimate,'' Miller said. "But we haven't solved the problem. We've created a bigger problem than we tried to fix.''

The decrease in the filing of travel disclosure forms began in February, a month after House Speaker Dennis Hastert introduced an ethics reform bill proposing to ban privately sponsored travel altogether. Though the legislation did not pass, the announcement itself made lawmakers wary of accepting privately sponsored trips, said Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean.

Hastert's bill followed a wave of negative publicity surrounding privately sponsored travel in the wake of the scandal involving Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist who pleaded guilty to defrauding clients and funneling gifts to congressmen in exchange for legislative favors. He also helped organize golfing trips to Scotland for former Republican congressmen Tom DeLay of Texas and Bob Ney of Ohio.

"No one wants to be held up as a boondoggle" after the scandal, said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause, a citizens advocacy group. "A lot of members erred on the side of being conservative."

Overall, House members, senators and their aides reported taking about 1,300 privately sponsored trips costing some $2.7 million in travel expenses through the first eight months of 2006. Though Medill's analysis only covered disclosure forms filed through August, members of Congress were on pace to report far less privately financed travel than in previous years. On average, lawmakers and their staffs reported accepting more than 4,100 privately-sponsored trips costing $8.7 million each year from 2000 through 2005.

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi will address congressional travel with a reform package she plans to unveil when the 110th Congress convenes in January, said spokesman Drew Hammill.

Among organizations that customarily sponsor lawmakers' trips, the Congressional Institute Inc. reported the sharpest drop in the number of sponsored trips. The organization, which primarily funds retreats and planning sessions for Republican members of Congress, paid for almost 1,000 trips for lawmakers and aides between 2002 and 2005, more than any other private source.

Through the first eight months of 2006, however, just 17 congressional staffers - and no lawmakers - reported accepting travel expenses from the nonprofit group. Jerome Climer, a former GOP Capitol Hill staffer now serving as president of the institute, agreed that ethics concerns made lawmakers more hesitant to accept travel paid for with private money. But he said the forums the institute hosts remain popular.

"Realistically, we've not had a reduction in our attendance,'' Climer said. The only difference, he added, is that travelers report trips as campaign expenses rather than privately sponsored getaways.

Since 1995, congressional rules have required lawmakers to report all privately financed travel to the Clerk of the House or the Senate Office of Public Records. Disclosure forms ask for the dates of travel, the departure and return locations, the sponsor and purpose of the trips, and lodging, food and transportation expenses for the traveler and accompanying family members.

By contrast, lawmakers who pay for travel through personal campaign accounts need only notify the Federal Election Commission of the amount of the check and the name and address of the recipient.

Reviews of numerous lawmakers' leadership PACs show vast sums spent on airfare, food and hotels. In most instances, though, FEC records do not indicate whether the travel was associated with a lawmaker, a staffer or someone else. In some cases, though, FEC files suggest private companies made donations to leadership PACs that lawmakers promptly used to cover travel expenses.

On the Friday before Memorial Day weekend in 2005, the political action committee of rail giant CSX donated $5,000 to the leadership PAC of Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, the outgoing chairman of the Financial Services Committee.

The next month, Oxley's leadership PAC sent two checks to CSX Corp.- $1,587 for airfare and $2,053 for lodging and golf fees - in connection with the "CSX Challenge," a conference the company traditionally holds over Memorial Day weekend at the posh Greenbrier resort owned by CSX, in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.

In the past, CSX has directly covered travel costs for several dozen members of Congress to participate in the event.

In written responses to questions, CSX spokesman Gary Sease said the company's PAC - known as the CSX Good Government Fund - "makes contributions to candidates for elected office whose views and voting records are consistent with the company's business objectives." Oxley's press office did not return repeated calls seeking comment for this story.

Barton's trip aboard a BellSouth chartered plane in late September took him a fundraiser for his leadershipPAC in Islamorada, Fla., said Ward White, one of the BellSouth lobbyists aboard the plane. BellSouth arranged the flight after a legislative session ran late, White said, and Barton had no other way to reach the event.

A Web site for Islamorada, which is about 80 miles south of Miami, calls the town the sport fishing capital of the world, and Barton has previously hosted fishing tournaments there in connection with fundraisers for his leadership PAC.

Representatives for Barton did not return numerous calls seeking comment on the trip.

White said passengers didn't discuss AT&T's proposed acquisition of BellSouth on the flight to Florida. The deal would create the world's largest telecommunications company and is pending approval before the Federal Communications Commission. Barton, whose committee oversees telecommunications issues, supports the merger.

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