The antics of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others have spotlighted the sorry practice of powerful interests treating lawmakers to cushy trips.
Now, a new report on junkets bankrolled by corporations, trade associations and non-profits has put some rather startling numbers to the problem. Between 2000 and 2005, congressional members and their staffs took at least 23,000 trips valued at $50 million.
The study was issued by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity.
Many probably were for legitimate purposes, including fact-finding and education. But many seem obvious attempts to buy influence, and lawmakers allowed themselves to be wooed in glamour spots like Paris (200 trips), Italy (140 trips) and Hawaii (150 trips).
One of the top sponsors of congressional trips was General Atomics, a California defense contractor that makes the Predator reconnaissance drone. The report notes that after five years of picking up lawmakers’ travel tabs, in 2005 the company “landed promises of billions of dollars in federal business.”
At least 48 trips worth $84,000 were paid for by the top five drug companies.
Members of Colorado’s delegation were not among the elite trip-takers. While there were 120 trips to Paris, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez was the only Coloradan to visit that city. Beauprez made four trips paid for by private interests costing $27,658. His six-day trip to Paris, valued at $5,234, was on the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Beauprez also made an eight-day trip to Israel and Spain costing $21,226 and sponsored by the Jerusalem Summit, Michael Cherney Foundation. Its purpose: a speech and panel discussion.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette took 14 trips worth $40,879. The most expensive was a trip to Rome (with her husband) worth $8,293 and paid for by the Aspen Institute. Other Colorado lawmakers took fewer or less costly trips.
Dennis Thompson, professor of government at Harvard University, told the Center for Public Integrity that privately funded trips violate a principle of fairness, even if no hard favors are done in return.
“In order to get this special kind of access, you have to pay a lot of money,” Thompson said.
Voters should question the influence that wealthy private interests have on lawmakers. We do.
