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Voters have final say on travel

By EDITORIAL
Published June 17, 2006

Not much has been written about the golf ventures to Scotland recently, so lobbying reform and travel restrictions in Congress seem to be floating aimlessly over the Atlantic.

Here's a number that might help rediscover the lost ambitions: 50. That's how many millions of dollars have been spent in the past five years by private interests treating congressional members and their staffs to luxury travel in exotic places. The number comes courtesy of a report prepared by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Medill News Service. And if members of Congress won't do something about it, the job falls to voters.

The House passed some measured lobbying restrictions in April, not long after disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty and started talking to investigators about his gifts to Congress. But that bill languishes in conference. In the meantime, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has promised to issue proposed travel restrictions with or without the bill becoming law.

Don't wait on these high-fliers.

An update by the Center for Public Integrity shows the public interest is running up against a considerable headwind. On the committee that oversees House conduct, members and staff have been treated to $1-million worth of travel themselves. Ranking Democrat Howard Berman of California and his staff have racked up 80 trips worth $240,000. That includes two trips to Shanghai and Beijing, for both Berman and his wife, that cost $32,000.

Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, a Republican, is a homebody by comparison. His travel has cost $70,000. But he works in a culture of privilege and announced at a recent committee hearing that "such travel is absolutely essential to the work of the House."

If the travel is essential to the job, and it often is, then Congress needs to pick up the tab. Otherwise, these trips are unseemly junkets, paid for by people who are buying access and influence.

[Last modified June 17, 2006, 05:29:02]