MEDILL NEWS SERVICE > Power Trips: Congress hits the road

Congressmen Hit Vegas
By NICK LEDDEN, KEITH ROSHANGAR and JASON SPARAPANI
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON -- There were gadgets galore-some that control the temperature and lighting in your home, and others capable of composing soundtracks for your next road trip.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs were there. Gates spoke of a digitized future where music and entertainment software is so smart it knows what you want to listen to, or watch, and when.

Dana Carvey and Ellen DeGeneres cracked jokes. Morgan Freeman and Tom Hanks added glitz. And they were all given a warm welcome by Nevada Sen. John Ensign.

It's Vegas, baby!

Held each January in the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center, the Consumer Electronic Show is the largest of its kind in the country, showcasing the latest in technology from 2,500 companies, including giants like Panasonic, Sony and Intel.

Among the more than 150,000 people at this year's show were at least six members of Congress and 60 Capitol Hill staffers. The cost for the trips, totaling more than $118,000, was footed by the Consumer Electronics Association with some help from the Information Industry Technology Council.

The 66 Washington insiders mingled with industry leaders and wove in and out of policy briefings on issues like digital rights management and broadband rollout.

Privately funded trips are nothing new in Congress, but the recent scandal involving imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to bribing members of Congress, has cast such jaunts in a new-and much less flattering-light.

The January trip to Vegas may have been the last great hurrah.

Several members of Congress left for Vegas just a day or two after Abramoff's guilty plea. And immediately after the trip wrapped up, the Consumer Electronics Association's lobbying firm, the Alexander Strategy Group, announced it would shut its doors because of its ties to the mushrooming Abramoff corruption scandal.

A partner at that firm and a lobbyist for the Consumer Electronics Association, Tony Rudy, has since pleaded guilty to accepting bribes while he worked as a high-ranking staffer for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

In the aftermath of the Abramoff fiasco, members of Congress and staff cut their privately sponsored travel this year by two-thirds, according to a Medill News Service analysis of travel disclosure forms from Jan. 1, 2000, through mid-August 2006. In 2006, members and their aides have taken trips worth about $2.7 million in the first eight months of the year, compared with about $8.3 million in each in the two previous years.

Of the all the trips taken in 2006, the one to Las Vegas attracted the largest number of congressmen and their aides - and was among the most expensive.

Staffers from 36 congressional offices attended - including key aides to Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas; John Conyers, D-Mich.; and Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska; and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Reid will be the majority leader when the new Congress convenes in January.

Barton chairs the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Its staff, which includes Democrats as well as Republicans, was the top recipient of the Consumer Electronic Association's largess. Nine committee employees accepted more than $16,000 for travel and expenses to attend the convention.

The association listed Barton as a panelist in a discussion about digital television at the event. But Barton has not filed disclosure forms listing travel to or from Las Vegas at the time of the convention. His office failed to respond to repeated requests for comment.

Conyers' and Stevens' offices each accepted travel worth about $11,000; Issa's office accepted trips worth nearly $8,000; and Reid's staff Reid took trips worth more than $5,000. Together, these five offices accepted more than 40 percent of the expenses paid by the association.

Conyers is the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary committee; Stevens is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the commerce committee, and Issa is a former chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association.

Most members of Congress stayed in the luxurious Bellagio hotel on the Las Vegas strip, said Michael Petricone, vice president for technology policy at the Consumer Electronics Association.

The association also spent a hefty sum on transportation and lodging for obscure but powerful congressional staffers, including a $1,535 plane ticket for an aide to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. It spent more than $1,300 for a three-night stay in a Vegas hotel for an assistant to Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., whose district is home to Microsoft Corp.'s headquarters and who is a member of the House commerce committee.

"The reason for the high fares is that members of Congress often decided to book their tickets at the last minute," Petricone said.

A number of staffers who attended hold influential positions on key committees related to technology. Many worked on legislation ranging from file sharing to the future of High Definition Television to net neutrality, which prevents Internet service providers from creating a two-tiered system giving preference to certain sites and services.

The association makes no bones about its intent to shape policy on Capitol Hill, keeping tabs on federal legislation and regulations that affect the consumer electronics industry.

Petricone said the trade show also was about enlightening members and their staffs.

"These members' level of tech familiarity isn't that great," Petricone said. "They got to see technology, talk to engineers and designers in a way you can't do in D.C."

Congressional staffers said the trip provided valuable perspective on how technology affects their bosses' constituents.

Inslee's district "is a hub of the high tech," spokeswoman Christine Hanson said. "He can represent [local companies] and make sure were growing our economy in Washington state."

For Reid's office, the reason for attendance was even more direct.

"Considering the huge economic impact the convention has on Las Vegas and the international policy discussions that take place, it is logical that the convention be attended by relevant staff members of Senator Reid's office," said spokesman Jon Summers.

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