An analysis of congressional trips by Medill News Service in partnership with American Public Media's Marketplace program and PoliticalMoneyLine found that in 2005 members of Congress have already gone on more than 520 privately funded trips, costing over $1.7 million. The average cost of each trip this year was $3,292 and members took an average of slightly less than two trips.

Privately funded trips supplement the government-funded excursions lawmakers take, such as DeMint's and Inglis' trips to Iraq this year and Graham's recent visit to Uzbekistan.

South Carolina lawmakers have taken 12 privately funded trips in 2005.

In mid-January, Graham went to Honolulu, Hawaii, for a week-long conference on technology convergence sponsored by Sony, a $67 billion electronics and information technology company based in New York. The trip cost $3,793.00.

It cost more than the average trip in 2005, but was nowhere near the most expensive.

Graham spokesman, Kevin Bishop, said the senator met with Sony executives to discuss intellectual property theft issues concerning China. Sony and other American companies are having problems with China pirating movies and music, Bishop said.

"In China there is not a real stringent protection of intellectual property," Bishop said. "It is costing businesses royalties and revenues."

Graham is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over antitrust and intellectual property law issues. That was a factor in Graham's decision to attend the conference.

Bishop said Graham has certain criteria for taking privately sponsored trips: a relationship to his area of responsibility in Congress, such as a committee he sits on, or a tie to a specific issue or legislation Graham has been working on.

Graham judges each trip based on whether he can learn something and whether it is worth the time to attend, Bishop said.

The two other trips Graham took totaled $750. At the end of January, Graham spoke to the American Trial Lawyers Association in California about medical malpractice. And in April, Graham was the keynote speaker at the American Board of Trial Advocates' winter conference in New Orleans.

In comparison, DeMint has so far taken no trips in 2005. When asked for comment, DeMint's spokesman Wesley Denton said: "All travel by Sen. DeMint and his staff follows Senate rules and federal law."

Inglis, who returned to the seat after previously serving from 1993 to 1998, also has taken no privately funded trips; this year, he went on his first congressional delegation, government-sponsored trip to Iraq.

After returning from the trip, Inglis reflected on a comment that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich made about travel: If you're not traveling, you're not doing the job right.

However Inglis clarified that he thinks it is better to travel on official congressional trips instead of those funded by lobbyists.

"You are more likely to get unbiased information, and you are less likely to run the risk of it being a trip aimed at influence instead of information," Inglis said.

Inglis didn't want to assume that all trips funded by interest groups are suspect. But he said members of Congress need to be careful about privately funded trips and how they might be perceived by others.

If lobbyists offer a trip to Scotland, there are politically relevant landmarks, Inglis said, but there is also "some mighty fine golfing."

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