USA Today is reporting that Members of Congress took $3.6 million worth of free trips.
According to a USA Today analysis of Political MoneyLine data, "493 trips were taken in 2013, up from 402 in 2012, an election year. Lawmakers typically cut down on privately funded travel during the campaign season."
In 2007, Congress tweaked their ethics rules by forbidding privately funded travel by corporate interests and lobbyists and limiting it to nonprofits and educational groups. Regardless of who is paying for these trips, these groups want something from these lawmakers in exchange from these trips.
The number one (1) destination for lawmakers to travel was Israel. "The biggest sponsor remains a foundation affiliated with the influential pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC. The group holds its annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., next week. AIPAC's foundation funded 77 trips, totaling nearly $1.4 million in value, records show. By contrast, a more moderate pro-Israel group, the J Street Education Fund, sponsored four trips."
Don't think that only members of Congress go on these trip. According to the same analysis, " family members - mostly spouses- went along for the ride on more than 40% of the trips."
The member of Congress with the most expensive itinerary goes to Democratic Representative John Garamendi from California. Rep. Garamendis and his wife, Patricia, took a $40,000 trip to South Sudan and Tanzania, organized by the aid group CARE and underwritten by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Garamendi, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said the trip helped him gain a better sense of foreign assistance work in both countries.
"Why take a trip funded by a private group? Garamendi said it spares taxpayers the cost of expensive travel and gives him more flexibility than official congressional trips, which he described as "highly structured.
'I don't like to be a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed fertilizer,' he said."
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