Rep. Steven King, a Republican who represents Iowa's 5th District, filed overdue reports on $19,485 worth of trips dating back to 2003 this April, a week after the House Ethics Committee decided to look into whether House Majority Leader Tom DeLay took illegal trips.

Rep. Jim Leach, a Republican who represents Iowa's 2nd district, is scheduled to have all his overdue reports in by Tuesday, said his Chief of Staff, Gregory Wierzynski. Only then will the cost of those trips, which date back to 2001, become public information.

King and Leach are two of more than 30 lawmakers from both parties who have filed late reports in the past month in the wake of allegations that DeLay's travels were financed by lobbyists, which is not allowed under House ethics rules.

"What you have here is not just Steve King having to amend his travel records," said Amy Walter, who analyzes House races for the Cook Political Report, a private firm that studies political campaigns. "There's a whole host of incumbents who are going back and resubmitting these forms."

When members of Congress take trips financed by special interest groups, they are required to report the cost, destination and sponsors of those trips within 30 days. But King reported only one of the six excursions he's taken since early 2003 on time, according to an analysis by Medill News Service in partnership with American Public Media's Marketplace program and politicalmoneyline.com.

Leach failed to report two trips to Davos, Switzerland, to attend World Economic Forum conferences in 2001 and 2004, Wierzynski said. A 2002 report said Leach's attendance the annual conference cost the forum $6,894. Leach also did not report attending a meeting of the forum in New York in 2002, Wierzynski said.

The six trips King reported late included a $10,489 trip to Tel Aviv paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation. He also visited Chicago, New York City and Maryland for conferences.

Both congressmen listed the trips in their annual financial disclosure statements, said Wierzynski and Chuck Laudner, King's chief of staff. These statements are a requirement separate from the House rule mandating that congressmen to file reports on trips within 30 days of their return.

Both congressional offices said media attention to the issue of congressional travel prompted them to reexamine financial records. They then discovered that the reports were overdue and filed them.

"We had a staff person that overlooked [the required 30-day reports] -- we're new in Congress," King said. "But the national publicity brought our attention to it."

Wierzynski said a similar staff oversight was brought to his attention by The Des Moines Register in May.

"On our part it was a clerical screw-up," he said, "and we moved as quickly as possible to remedy it when it was pointed out to us."

Walter said the rule makes politicians accountable to the public and should not be brushed off.

"Whether you're a member of Congress or a person having to file their property tax, the answer of 'I didn't understand it' or 'I just forgot' doesn't fly with us regular folks.'"

The rule "fundamentally is about keeping everything that members of Congress do open to public scrutiny," she said, adding that the allegations against DeLay "have really put members of Congress under the microscope in a way that we haven't seen in a long time."

Although some believe government should pay for all politicians' travel, privately funded trips allow members of Congress to complete educational or fact-finding missions without using tax dollars.

"By and large they learn things about the world that are helpful to them in being legislators," said Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Hess, who studies media and politics at the nonpartisan think tank.

The eagerness of King, Leach and other politicians to comply with regulations and report these trips, Hess said, is proper but probably temporary.

"These things go in waves," he said. "Something happens, some little scandal…and then there are newspaper accounts…and then everybody rushes to complete their forms or to look over their shoulders…and then we go back to business as usual because it's not what's on our minds most of the time."

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