Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., took a $75 overnight trip to Ardmore, Okla., to tour an agricultural biotechnology facility.

An analysis of congressional trips paid by private groups from Jan.1, 2000, through June 2004 found that lawmakers' privately funded trips varied widely in length, scope, destination and cost.

The Cable News Network, for example, paid $27.50 in transportation costs to drive Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., across town to its New York studio. The National Center for Public Policy and Research, on the other hand, spent more than $28,100 to send Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, to England on a fact-finding trip.

The analysis of congressional trips by Medill News Service in partnership with American Public Media's Marketplace program and American RadioWorks found that private interests spent about $14.4 million since Jan.1, 2000, to send House and Senate members on more than 4,800 trips. And though the travel records are public, many congressional offices contacted for this story - particularly those whose members took the more expensive trips - were far from forthcoming with details of their trips.

Senate Trips: Big and Small

Since Jan.1, 2000, 110 different senators took 1,071 third party-sponsored trips. The trips ranged from Sen. Edward Kennedy's $22,156 travel to Paris to Lieberman's sub-$30 car ride in Manhattan.

In the Senate, the average trip cost about $2,500, excluding those for which senators did not indicate the cost. Of the nearly 1,100 total trips, 23 cost more than $10,000 and 59 cost $200 or less.

Kennedy's trip - the most expensive in the Senate - carried a much lower price tag than the costliest trip in the House ($31,170.76 for Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va.). However, his purpose was more personal than most of the other sponsored congressional trips: L'Oreal paid for Kennedy, D-Mass., to go to Paris for the opening of the Louvre's Jacqueline Kennedy exhibit: The White House Years, also sponsored by L'Oreal. Lodging for the five-day trip in 2002 cost nearly $10,000, and meals more than $1,100.

Asked about the trip, Kennedy's office declined to comment.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, traveled to Athens in 2002 to receive an honorary degree from the American College of Greece. Snowe, a senior member of the Senate and a prominent Greek-American, spent more than $18,000 on transportation for the six-day trip to Greece. Her office did not return several phone calls to answer questions about the trip.

The rest of the top 20 most expensive Senate trips all took lawmakers to foreign destinations, including China, Italy, Israel, England and Japan. But even domestic trips - or parts of them - were pricey.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., took a $4,100 overnight trip to Las Vegas for a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters in April 2003. One-night lodging cost $2,044 for the trip - huge even by Vegas standards.

Burns, a former broadcaster who founded the Northern Ag Network agricultural radio system in the western United States, still has an interest in the industry and is head of the Communications subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee, said spokesman Grant Toomey

"The last thing Senator Burns is is extravagant," Toomey said. "The only reason he was in Vegas was because that's where the [National Association of Broadcasters] held its conference"

Indeed, lawmakers often do not have a choice about the destination of a conference or a meeting. They also do not dictate lodging, meal and travel itineraries. Groups such as the Aspen Institute, for example, take numerous House and Senate members on the same trip, during which every day is scheduled like a prix-fix menu.

"The costs of these kinds of trips aren't determined by [Burns] - it's not like he has an option between a $4,200 trip and a $2,500 trip," Toomey said.

Burns also took some of the least expensive Senate trips - back to Montana. He toured the Plum Creek Timber plant on one trip, and saw a demonstration of high-speed Internet access on another. Toomey said Burns, like all members of Congress, must stay in touch with constituents and business-related developments and concerns in his state; routine, no-frills trips are part of the job.

Of the 60 Senate trips expensed at $200 or below, many were for transportation to TV news shows and travel to one-day speaking engagements in places like Ann Arbor, Mich. (Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.), Laredo, Texas (Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas), and Boston (Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.).

House

In the past 4 1/2 years, 472 different House members have taken 3,781 trips. They varied from Rep. William Thomas's $24,000 trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, to a $43.80 car ride for Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., for a speech to the Greater Houston Partnership.

The average trip in the House cost $3,160, and 231 of the trips totaled more than $10,000. Almost 140 trips cost $200 or less.

Virginia's Bliley took the most expensive trip out of any lawmaker since Jan. 1, 2000. The Republican's four-night trip to London with his wife, Mary Virginia, cost $31,000 in July 2000 - a few months before he retired from Congress.

Brown & Williamson Corp., a cigarette manufacturing and marketing company that has recently merged with the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., footed the bill for Bliley's trip, whose stated purpose was to tour and speak with management of the company and to meet with the CEO of British Trade International, according to travel disclosure form.

Bliley and his wife spent almost $24,000 on transportation, $4,000 for lodging and almost $3,000 for entertainment. House Ethics Committee rules specify that only $50 can be spent on entertainment during congressional trips.

Bliley now works for Collier Shannon Scott, a lobbying and law firm in Washington. One of his clients is the Tobacco Products Manufacturing Coalition. He declined to comment for this story.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., strung together four trips in 2001 to create a two-week trek across Asia that cost more than $45,000. The trip included stops in Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. House rules limit the length of an international trip to seven days, excluding travel, but her trips were filed separately because they had four separate sponsors.

"When I travel in an official capacity, I make an effort to balance privately sponsored trips with congressionally funded travel to ensure diverse experiences," Ros-Lehtinen said.

Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., toured nuclear facilities during a four-night trip to Italy paid for by the Nuclear Energy Institute - and ate well, spending $4,404.26. Crenshaw did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

But trips for House members didn't always mean a first class flight. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., took a $75 trip to Ardmore, Okla., to tour an agricultural biotechnology facility. Lucas is chairman of the Agriculture subcommittee.

The trip included a 150-mile drive to The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Inc., according to spokesman Jim Luetkemeyer. Lucas stayed one night at the foundation's private conference center for $64.99 and ate a $10 continental breakfast the next morning. The tour and meetings lasted around three hours.

Other smaller trips included a $97.90 flight for then-Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., for a speech to the Chicago School of Law; a $50 luncheon for Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.; and a $45 car ride for Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, to appear on the television show "Judicial Watch."

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