Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Congressional delegation hits road

WASHINGTON -- Nevada lawmakers and their staff aides have taken 67 expenses-paid trips valued at $175,181 in the last three years as guests of trade groups and lobbyists. Their destinations for fact-finding trips, seminars and speaking engagements included Hawaii, Florida, New Orleans, Taiwan, India and Ireland.

Compared to some members of Congress, Nevada's lawmakers and their aides have taken relatively few expenses-paid trips, which are allowed under congressional rules.

But a look at who paid for the Nevada delegation's travel to exotic -- and some not-so-exotic -- destinations offers a glimpse at who has been vying for their attention and votes.

The Sun examined congressional records of trips dating to the beginning of 2000. The five-member Nevada delegation's most frequent flier on trips paid for by lobbyists and trade groups was Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Her travel included:

Berkley and her husband also just returned from another trip to Greece where she met with Greek officials and traced her roots to Thessaloniki, where her great-grandparents lived. The trip was paid for by the Western Policy Foundation and the total cost was not yet available.

Berkley sits on the House International Relations Committee and she said it was important to build relationships face-to-face with leaders in democratic nations.

On each of the trips, Berkley and others met with high-level diplomats and national leaders, including a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee at a time when Indian and nuclear rival Pakistan were in a tense standoff. In Israel, Berkley attended a meeting on Middle East peace prospects with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and later, with Palestinian negotiators.

Berkley noted that the "on-the-bus, off-the-bus" schedules on all the trips are well documented. Itineraries are packed with meetings -- hardly a vacation, Berkley said.

"We're on the road by 7 a.m. and don't get back to the hotel until 10 (p.m.)," Berkley said.

Congressional rules over the years have sharply limited gifts -- even meals -- that lobbyists can buy for lawmakers and their aides. But the rules still allow trade groups to pay for trips up to seven days, including, in some cases: expensive flights, lavish meals and fancy hotels. It's one of the few perks left in Congress, one staffer told the Sun.

Lawmakers and staffers are required to file a trip report with House and Senate clerks and to itemize four expenses: transportation, lodging, meals and "other expenses." They are required to list the purpose of the trip, typically accounted for with a few words: "attend conference," "fact-finding."

Critics say that while some trips are worthwhile, some are more vacation than education. Many have ample sight-seeing time built into the itineraries, critics note.

"The trick is to distinguish which trips are junkets and which serve a legitimate educational purpose," said Matt Keller, legislative director for the watchdog group Common Cause.

Critics say that in most cases the trips buy lobby groups extraordinary time with lawmakers and key aides -- time that constituents and smaller activist groups can't afford.

"They want something, and what they want is access," Keller said. "And they get it, in a quiet relaxed atmosphere -- on the golf course, over a nice meal. They're out to further their legislative agenda and that's the only reason they do it. It's not like they just enjoy hanging out with these guys."

Some of the trips are short and relatively inexpensive. For example, Peter Arapis, an aide to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., took a two-day, $1,304 trip to Reno last year for a National Rifle Association conference, paid for by the NRA.

Even on short trips, the groups often set busy agendas, watchdog groups say.

"The industry or lobby group takes care of all the details, and then they take advantage of their captive audience," said Steven Weiss, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group. "They take advantage of the face time."

The lobbyists often travel with the lawmakers and staffers so they have additional time on the plane and at the hotel, said Bill Allison, spokesman for the Center for Public Integrity, a government ethics group.

"Then you listen to their speakers at their conferences and it really gives the industry a chance to frame an issue," Allison said. "What you end up with is debate (in Congress) framed in terms of the special interests, and the public interest is left out."

But lawmakers and their aides say the trips offer them unique firsthand insight into places and issues that help them better represent constituents, without sticking the bill to taxpayers.

Lawmakers and aides dismiss the notion that the trips make them beholden to their hosts.

Berkley said she has not been in regular contact with any of the groups that paid for her trips. The groups did not lobby her, she said. The groups are motivated by their stated missions to improve relations with the United States, and in some cases, to generally promote a healthy business trade climate, Berkley aides said.

Members of Congress accepted $2.3 million worth of trips last year, according to an analysis by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. Naturally some lawmakers travel more than others. A few have literally flown around the world on the dime of private groups. Sen. John Breaux, D-La., is one of the Senate's most frequent trip takers, making 12 trips last year alone, from Naples, Fla., to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, as the guest of high-powered interests such as the American Shipbuilders Association and the Pacific Basin Economic Council.

Nevada lawmakers made relatively few trips. Since the beginning of the year 2000, Reid has made two trips: to Israel, and to Florida for a speech. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has taken no trips.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., also has taken no trips since he entered the Senate in 2001. And freshman Rep. Jon Porter, who entered the House at the beginning of this year, has taken one trip, to Reno for a dinner event for Safari Club International, a hunters group.

In Nevada offices and most others, it is the staffers who rack up most of the miles.

Last year Ensign's deputy chief-of-staff, John Lopez, spent a week in Kona, Hawaii, for an annual aviation conference paid for by the American Association of Airport Executives.

Ensign spokeswoman Sari Mann provided the Sun with an itinerary for the conference that listed a busy week of lobby group events and said it was "very helpful" for Lopez to attend, in part because Ensign sits on an airline commerce subcommittee. But Lopez himself declined comment on how the conference was helpful.

Susan McCue, chief of staff for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., made the most trips of any Nevada congressional aide last year. She made five trips in 2002, to France/Belgium, Malaysia/Hong Kong, Guatemala, Ireland and New Orleans, at a total cost of $21,267.

The Democratic Leadership Council paid for the New Orleans trip for an issues retreat. The two European trips were designed to promote U.S. trade and were paid for by the National Chamber Foundation, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On both trips, McCue and other staffers met with business representatives and she said she prodded them to look for business opportunities in Nevada. All the trips were packed with meetings, she said.

"It's not a vacation," McCue said. "You're doing meetings the whole time you're there. There may be a little down time in the afternoon but they really work you."

McCue's trip to Guatemala with five other Senate staffers was an arduous trek to view poverty-stricken areas, said an official for Population Action International, which paid for the trip. The group lobbies Congress for foreign aid for family planning programs and other projects in poor nations where swelling populations are degrading the environment.

It can be difficult to persuade lawmakers to support foreign aid, said Lisa Moreno, senior legislative policy analyst for the group.

"If you're not a top (congressional) priority, this (trip) is a really effective method of getting your message across," Moreno said.

Other traveling Reid staffers included former Reid aide Edward Ayoob, who went on a six-day, $4,600 trip to India last year, also sponsored by the Confederation of Indian Industry. Reid's legislative director Kai Anderson took a five-day, $2,966 trip to Alaska last year to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Prudhoe Bay oilfield, paid for by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups. And former Reid staff lawyer James Ryan spent a $2,656 weekend in Miami, paid for by the Securities Industry Association. Ryan said the group's annual conferences provide opportunities to plot strategy with lobbyists and fellow Democrats on a wide range of issues, from bankruptcy reform to terrorism insurance.

Ryan acknowledged that all lobbyists want something.

"But there's a tradeoff in everything," he said. "I can find all kinds of opportunities (at the conference) for Harry Reid to do something for the state of Nevada."

The association does not release the number of lawmakers and aides who attend the Miami conferences, spokesman Dan Michaelis said. It's a worthwhile expense for the lobby group because lawmakers and key staffers are swamped with other issues during typical workweeks, he said.

"This gives us an opportunity to have a couple of days devoted solely to investor issues and securities industry issues," Michaelis said.

According to two sources familiar with the conference, at least a few congressional aides -- not Nevada staffers -- spent a weekend last year partying in Miami Beach.

When asked about how much fun congressional staffers have, Michaelis insisted, "It's pretty much a working weekend."

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