The Washington Post reported on several privately funded trips DeLay has taken during his tenure in the House, including 2000 travel to London and Scotland that Indian gambling interests covered and that reportedly cost $70,000. Separately, the Post reported that DeLay flew to South Korea in 2001 on a private trip that allegedly cost more than $100,000.

DeLay now is facing charges of improper ethics before the House Ethics Committee, but the committee has yet to rule on them.

A database compiled by Medill News Service in partnership with American Public Media's Marketplace program and PoliticalMoneyLine shows that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., took three privately funded trips in 2005 and Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., has taken one trip so far this year. South Carolina's junior senator, Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has not taken a privately funded trip during 2005.

Graham selects trips that have relevance to the committees he sits on in the Senate, those that relate to issues he has separately been working on, and those that may better inform him, said spokesman Kevin Bishop.

"You judge each trip on its merits and if your time allows you to go," Bishop said. "Senator Graham is a very busy man."

Sony paid Graham's expenses for a week-long trip to Honolulu in January - one that cost $3,793.00.

Travel costs were $2,443.00 and lodging was $1,350.00. According to Bishop, the airfare was $2,068.00 and the remainder of travel expenses was devoted to ground travel.

Currently on travel Web site Kayak.com, roundtrip fares for a comparable weeklong trip from Washington to Honolulu with 14 days advance booking July are as low as $854.00.

Bishop said tickets often are more expensive for Graham because he, like other members of Congress, has a job that makes it difficult to predict a schedule in advance - and that would allow for less costly tickets that take advantage of low rates.

And Bishop added that even though the trip to Honolulu took place during a Senate recess, Graham still did not have the ability to book far in advance because he still could have been required to travel on short notice.

While in Hawaii, South Carolina's senior senator spoke to a group of Sony executives about alleged thefts of DVDs, music and other recorded data by Chinese nationals.

Graham focused his comments on how inaction by China's government on the protection of intellectual property had been hurting American business interests, Bishop said.

Later in January, Graham was the keynote speaker at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's 2005 winter convention in La Quinta, Calif. The ATLA paid $260 for Graham's lodging.

And in April, Graham spent two days in New Orleans and addressed the Southeast American Board of Trial Advocates. The ABOTA covered $295 in travel costs and $195 for lodging.

By comparison, Wilson has taken only one privately funded trip in 2005 - but it wasn't cheap.

Generally, Wilson only takes trips if they're arranged by the House Armed Services committee and allow him "to visit U.S. troops and learn more about the War on Terror," said spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore in a statement.

But in February Wilson attended a three-day strategy conference hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

More than 50 members of Congress joined him, said Danielle Doane, the Heritage Foundation's director for House relations and the event's organizer.

The trip brought together conservative members to plan strategy for the 109th Congress concerning legislation in support of Social Security reform, fiscal discipline and family values, Lawrimore noted. Wilson's wife, Roxanne, joined him.

The Heritage Foundation paid $226.40 to shuttle Wilson by charter bus from Washington to Baltimore and back, Doane said. The Heritage Foundation paid the same amount for each member of Congress who joined Wilson on the 45-mile bus rides, Doane added.

According to Doane, members of Congress stayed at a Marriott in Baltimore and ate most meals there.

"We're not going to put them up in a Motel 8 for two days," Doane said, noting that the trip's setting was intended to be comfortable for the congressmen.

While at the Marriott, Wilson tallied $425.26 in rooming costs, $608.94 on meals and miscellaneous expenses totaling just under $40.00. The Heritage Foundation spent $1,300.41 in total on Wilson's trip.

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