An 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.

Several of the traveling lawmakers sit on committees with oversight over the exchanges. While exchange representatives and congressional staff say the trips help lawmakers better understand the industries they oversee, Danielle Brian, director of the Project on Government Oversight, questions the influence the exchanges might be able to exert through the visits.

"The average citizen doesn't get that kind of face time with members of Congress to explain to them why they like or don't like what they're doing," she said.

The exchange-sponsored trips to Chicago and New York involved tours of the exchange facilities. NASDAQ and the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange also sponsored trips to conferences in Florida, in which lawmakers participated in panels discussing policy with leaders of the futures and technology industries.

The NASDAQ stock exchange sponsored trips by Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., to Florida conferences in 2003 and 2004. NASDAQ paid more than $10,000 for two trips, including about $6,000 for travel, $2,400 in lodging and $1,500 for meals.

Congressional staff said the prices tend to be high because members of Congress have to make travel plans on short notice. A Dicks representative said the trips to Florida gave the congressman a rare opportunity to meet with leaders of industries he oversees.

"They should hear from Congress in terms of fiscal and tax policy. We should hear from them on the constraints faced by business," he said.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade spent nearly $67,000 sending members of Congress to Boca Raton, Fla. The exchanges used the trips, at least in part, to convince lawmakers that transaction taxes are a bad idea, according to a CME representative.

Transaction taxes could hamper the ability of futures exchanges to provide efficient markets, the representative said.

The CME puts more effort into media attention than politics, said Barbara Wierzynski, general counsel for the Association.

"They're far more interested in influencing the press," she said, suggesting that the affect of positive press on the exchange's stock price is a higher priority to the CME than favorable legislation.

Exchanges spent somewhat more on Republicans, who have led Congress most of the last four years. Exchanges sponsored about $150,000 in Republican trips, compared with about $120,000 in Democratic trips.

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