Group says 'fact-finding' trips need regulation
5 1/2-year study shows lawmakers, staff accepted $50M worth of free travel
By Richard Powelson
Knoxville News Sentinel
June 12, 2006

WASHINGTON - A private group paid $11,718 for a four-day trip to Paris by an aide to U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Chattanooga, for "fact finding," according to House records.
Also, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, and his wife accepted an association's reimbursement for an eight-day trip to Australia, valued at $25,442, for "fact finding," records show.

Common Cause, a congressional watchdog group, told the House ethics committee recently that there are too many privately financed trips for members and staff that are inadequately disclosed as "fact finding."

The House should set detailed requirements, such as committee preapproval, a detailed purpose and itinerary, and a list of trip participants, the group proposed, and bar lobbyists from any connection to the trips.

Congress is considering lobbying and trip reforms because of the bribery conviction of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is cooperating with investigators looking at who in Congress benefited. No Tennessee member has been implicated.

Wamp said in an interview that all of his office's privately financed trips were justified - except for the Paris trip by then-aide Robert Hobart in December 2003.

When Wamp saw the post-trip report, he said, "frankly, it made me mad." The high cost was because Hobart and an aide to U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., took a chartered flight after experiencing a transportation problem, Wamp said. If Wamp had known the real cost before the trip, he said, he would have vetoed the plan.

The Paris trip, paid for by the European Institute, was for government staff members to discuss issues such as the environment, human rights, world markets and other matters, Wamp said.

Cooper could not be reached for comment about the 2004 Australia trip. It was the most-expensive trip by a Tennessee member or staffer in a study of travel from January 2000 to June 2005 by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service.

In the Tennessee delegation, Senate Majority Leader Frist and his staff ranked No. 1 in accepting the most free travel, lodging and meals - at a value of $257,766 - in the study period. The review by the three groups involved 23,000 trips valued at nearly $50 million.

Frist spokesman Matt Lehigh responded by e-mail that Frist considers trips with an "opportunity to build economic, cultural and educational ties that allow him to best represent Tennessee's interests and those of the nation."

The state's least-frequent travelers are in U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis' office. He was in Congress during roughly half of the study period. He and his staff accepted about $19,000 in privately funded trips, the study found.

Davis, D-Pall Mall, wants to ban all trips focused on recreation, said Davis spokesman Tom Hayden.

"Any trip he or his staff take are to be beyond reproach and relate directly to issues affecting the Fourth District," Hayden said.

Anthony Nownes, a University of Tennessee political science professor, said Congress should limit which groups may pay for congressional trips.

"What's happening on the trip we never really know," Nownes said. "So why not be safe and say, 'If you have business before the federal government, why should you be allowed to wine and dine and fly your members of Congress all over the country?' "

The office of U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville, had the third-largest total cost of privately financed trips in the center's study - $120,333 for 30 trips by Duncan or his staff.

One trip by Duncan and his wife to an airports conference in Hawaii, on Jan. 8-13, 2005, was valued at $7,590 and paid for by the American Association of Airport Executives. Duncan serves on the transportation committee that oversees aviation.

Asked about his travel paid for by private groups - 19 trips noted in the study - Duncan replied in a written statement that he "learned very much about various issues and problems on these trips. I have never been asked to vote for or against any legislation" on the trips.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former U.S. secretary of education and University of Tennessee president, and his wife accepted a five-day trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica, last February from the Aspen Institute that was valued at $5,400. He was participating in a conference on education reform, his public report states.

Alexander aide Harvey Valentine said Alexander's privately funded trips were sponsored by nonprofits and involved no lobbying.

U.S. Rep. Bill Jenkins, R-Rogersville, rarely takes privately funded trips, records show.

Jenkins' aide Richard Vaughn said any staff travel proposals face "an extensive review" to ensure that they will be informative in considering matters before Congress.

Nownes, the UT professor, said Congress should end its rule allowing organizations to pay for a spouse or child to accompany a member of Congress on a trip, especially the popular places like Hawaii, Jamaica and Las Vegas.

"Members of both parties defend it because it's fun," Nownes said. "It's a wonderful perk. It should be eliminated, but I don't see that happening any time soon."