A Medill News Service analysis of the travel of staffs of the four most powerful House chairmen found that staffers took close to 10 times as many trips as their elected counterparts from Jan. 1, 2002, through June 30, 2004.

The staffs of four top House committee chairmen went on 303 trips costing private sponsors close to half a million dollars. Those travelers represented Energy and Commerce chairman Joe Barton of Texas; Transportation and Infrastructure chairman Don Young of Alaska; Appropriations chairman C.W. Bill Young of Florida; and Ways and Means chairman Bill Thomas of California.

Private sponsors spent the most money flying, housing and feeding staff of the House Transportation Committee. While Don Young, the chairman, went on fewer than a dozen trips, his staff and the committee's staff took 111 trips costing sponsors $228,000. Committee staffers engaged in the most international travel with 13 trips overseas. Staffers were away from the capital for 462 days.

The American Association of Airport Executives funded 13 ventures to Hawaii for its annual conference. It was the most popular trip on which to bring children and spouses, with nine individuals accompanying the invited staffers on the 10-day excursion. Committee spokesman Steve Hansen said that staffers file reports explaining how they participated and what they learned while on the trips.

"Since we passed the aviation bill after 9/11 we've heard from every airport in the country about the costs they've accrued, problems they have like no room for explosive detection deices," said Hansen. "Because of the interchange [between staffers and executives] we were able to take care of some of the problems in the FAA Reauthorization Bill."

According to Hansen the committee is inundated with project requests.

"This year alone we are working on $500 million worth of authorizations for highways, railroads, federal buildings, aviation and so on. Members rely on staff for expertise, whether it is first hand or in a briefing with a state official," Hansen said. "We have 500 requests for projects; each request is only two pages. You get the basic idea, but if you go out to the place and see that there are traffic jams or excessive lines at airports you have a much better understanding of the problem."

House Energy Committee staffers went on 50 privately funded trips that cost private sponsors $70,000 in the same period. In 2004, telecommunication companies and broadcast companies were the primary sponsors of the 19 trips that Energy Committee staff members took. Broadcast companies spent a total of $8,715 hosting Neil Fried, one of the committee's lawyers, on at least five trips to such locations as Disney World, New Orleans and Las Vegas.

The president has set a mandate for Internet access for all Americans by 2007 and Congress is reviewing the Telecommunications Act - two major issues for the committee.

The purpose of the staff trips ranged from "attending roundtable discussions among Fox executives and government officials regarding balancing creativity and responsibility in broadcast content," as stated on one of Fried's February employee travel disclosure form, to Howard Waltzman's $1,678 trip in April, sponsored by the U.S. Telecom Association and the National Association of Manufacturers, for what was reported as a "congressional staff conference," in San Diego.

When asked why such companies were sponsoring trips, Larry Neal, the communications director of the Energy Committee, said he could not give a specific answer and suggested the sponsors would have the answers.

Unlike other committees that have formal procedures to learn how a staffer participated on a privately funded trip, the Energy Committee learns "in the usual way that human beings communicate - ideas and information exchanged, people discuss and converse, lectures are delivered in meetings, memos and papers are written and read," according to Neal.

Staff of the House Committee on Appropriations went on only five trips since 2002 -- in line with the committee's official policy barring staff from accepting sponsored trips. Chairman Young recorded only one trip since 2002. The Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation paid for him to travel to New York in March 2004 and receive an award. The foundation spent less than $300 for the two-day trip.

"In general, the policy is, if we need to travel, then we can travel on the budget of the agency," one appropriations staffer said. "We have to be like Caesar's wife - not just above reproach, but above the appearance of wrongdoing."

John Scofield, appropriations press secretary, explained that the six staff trips - three in 2002, none in 2003 and three in 2004 - were either exceptions or mistakes.

"It is our policy, 99 percent of the time, not to do privately funded travel," Scofield said. "The policy is not blanket, but if you were going to do private travel, you would have to have a pretty good justification."

Scofield said the longstanding policy was put in place to avoid any sense of impropriety since the bulk of Appropriations travel is for oversight. If an invitation sounds interesting, staffers are encouraged to attend on the committee's dime, he said. Outside groups and lobbyists may meet staffers on trips, but Scofield said this is a natural part of politics.

"When you're a part of the Appropriations Committee, you can't go anywhere without being lobbied," Scofield said. "Everyone is looking for a piece of the pie. That's kind of the way it works. Agencies and groups need to make their case. It's perfectly appropriate for them to give justifications for why programs need to be funded."

The tax-writing Ways and Means committee is arguably the most powerful committee in the House. Tax cuts were central to the Bush administration agenda during the period examined by this report.

Chairman Bill Thomas reported six trips totaling nearly $8,600, financed by outside organizations since 2002, while Ways and Means staff members reported 112 trips, totaling $146,000, during the same period.

Several staff trips were sponsored by organizations with an interest in tax law, including the conservative, nonprofit Tax Foundation and The Tax Council (affiliated with the Tax Council Policy Institute), a nonprofit group that represents major U.S. corporations.

According to records filed with the House Legislative Resource Center, Thomas did not take trips funded by the tax groups.

Thomas and the Ways and Means committee office did not respond to requests for an interview.

Return to Power Trips: Congress hits the road