Friday, June 17, 2005 | 5:17 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
June 18-19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Ever wonder about those strangers sitting at the casino tables? They could be members of Congress.
Sin City has become a top destination for globe-trotting lawmakers as special interest groups lure members of Congress and their staffs away from Washington.
Private groups have paid for 181 trips to Las Vegas for lawmakers since 2000, making the gambling mecca the third hottest spot in the nation for trip-taking lawmakers, according to a study.
Only New York City and the West Virginia resort town of White Sulphur Springs -- which hosts congressional retreats -- beat out Las Vegas as a favorite destination for lawmakers traveling on the dime of special interest and industry trade groups, according to updated research by Northwestern University and PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan watchdog group.
And lawmakers aren't the only ones taking free trips. Their aides typically travel more frequently than their bosses. House congressional staffers made 89 trips to Las Vegas last year alone, according to Sun research.
Because of the way Congress keeps travel records, it's difficult to tabulate how much those trips are worth, but staffers typically take the bulk of the trips on behalf of their bosses.
The trips are legal and common. Lawmakers say the trips offer a unique education on issues, while critics say lobbyists are buying special access and attention. Congressional travel has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, amid questions about whether House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, violated House restrictions on travel. DeLay denies wrongdoing.
For traveling lawmakers, Las Vegas seems to be the "educational center of the universe," said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University professor and outspoken critic of the expenses-paid trips.
"There is always an education to be found on the Strip," Turley said, "but it is not one that is relevant to legislation."
Texas hold 'em
The official purposes of the Las Vegas trips vary. Conventions are the biggest draw for lawmakers. Sometimes lawmakers and their aides visit Yucca Mountain, or take back-of-the-house casino tours to "educate" themselves about the casino industry. In a few cases, trip purposes are listed simply as "fact finding" on trip reports filed with Congress.
But common perks of many trips include fine food, nice hotels, and, often, "down time" built into the schedule for fun.
From 2000 through April of this year, special interest groups spent $407,000 on airfare, hotels and meals for the lawmakers, often footing the bill for them to stay at the finest hotels on the Strip, according to the PoliticalMoneyLine database.
Conventions, some of which are so big they can only be held in a handful of U.S. cities, are the top reason that lawmakers come to Las Vegas. The events offer them a chance to schmooze with large audiences of powerful corporate interests.
There is no mystery to the lure of Las Vegas, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said.
The city offers lawmakers a two-fer: conventions that are a perfect place to catch up with key industry leaders about their latest issues -- and an array of amusements, from shows to boating on Lake Mead, Barton said.
Barton has been to Las Vegas 10 times in the last five years, more than any other member of Congress, as the guest of groups that include the National Mining Association, the United States Telecom Association and Power Gen International, an energy trade conference.
The Waco-born lawmaker said his favorite diversion was playing low-limit Texas hold 'em poker, typically at Bellagio, The Mirage or Mandalay Bay.
"We're going where the trade associations are having their conventions," the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said. "And, when they are not in their meetings, there are a lot of fun things for members to do."
Graft or gift?
Private interest groups have paid $17.5 million for 5,914 lawmaker trips since the beginning of 2000, including travel to Hawaii, Rio de Janeiro, Spain, Italy, Palm Beach, Fla., and the Bahamas, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.
In part because of new media attention on DeLay in recent months, a number of Congress members have scrambled to get their own travel records in order. Lawmakers are required to file trip reports with congressional clerks within 30 days of travel, but lawmakers since March have filed late reports for 198 pre-2005 trips, the Associated Press reported.
Many lawmakers say the trips offer important opportunities to view the issues, people and places that are affected by their legislation -- at no cost to the taxpayer.
But political and public interest watchdog groups argue that if the travel were truly important it should be paid by taxpayers. They say that group-paid trips create an opportunity for special interests to cozy up with lawmakers and offer them sanctioned gifts -- food, lodging and travel.
Former Rep. James Bilbray, D-Nev., said he was skeptical of trips during his four terms. He recalls fellow lawmakers routinely raving about a Paris Air Show trip, which Bilbray always declined.
Bilbray frequently traveled overseas on official, taxpayer-paid congressional trips as a member the Armed Services and Intelligence committees. But in eight years in Congress he took only two trips sponsored by special interests, one to Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and one to China.
"Some of them (trips) are done to influence the lawmaker," Bilbray said. "But some of them are fact-finding."
The Las Vegas trips aren't worth much, critic Turley said. Lawmakers typically have only a brief obligation -- a speech or panel appearance -- and then they are "released to the Strip to enjoy themselves," Turley said.
"Lobbyists know these members well. These people get few refusals when they offer a trip to Las Vegas to members of Congress," Turley said. "It's a national disgrace."
Turley said lawmakers value the trips so much that they are willing to weather any storm of public criticism. Voters are outraged, but the anger doesn't translate at the polls, Turley said.
It's unseemly for members of Congress to fly across the country to go to Las Vegas to give a one-hour talk and then spend two days playing golf, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Watchdog groups note that lawmakers often spend a few days in Las Vegas when the weather is nice. Of 182 trips, only 25 visits were made in the heat of June, July or August.
"If the trip becomes more about recreation than business it's not OK," Sloan said. "If members want to take a vacation, they should do what the rest of us do: pay for it."
Weak rules
Watchdog groups say congressional rules are lacking. By strict definition, lobby firms that have a multitude of clients cannot pay for trips. But trade associations and industry groups that actively lobby on a single issue -- nuclear energy or broadcasting, for example -- can pay for the travel.
Also, no one reviews trip reports and there are no penalties for failing to file or for rule violations, Sloan noted. And only a lawmaker can bring a complaint about another's trip to the House ethics committee. They rarely do.
"They don't want anyone looking at their own trip reports," Sloan said.
House and Senate ethics committees should routinely review the reports and penalize those who break rules or file late, Sloan said.
The trip reports themselves contain only basic information: date, place, sponsor, purpose, and the cost of travel, lodging and meals. Lawmakers are not required to detail expenditures, although in rare cases they submit invoices.
According to an invoice for Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C., he and his wife flew first class to Las Vegas on a $3,415 trip in April 2002, including a $637 two-night stay at the Bellagio, paid for by the broadcasters association. The couple flew in Saturday and their Sunday room invoice included a $105 "spa service," two drinks ($9 and $11) from the pool bar, and a $5 pool bar tip.
Burr's itinerary required him to attend a Sunday conference dinner, with entertainment by Jay Leno, and participate in a 75-minute panel discussion the next morning.
Congressional rules require that trips have some relevant value to the "official duties" of the lawmaker.
But in some cases rules have been bent or broken when lawmakers travel to exotic locales with little justification other than a meeting with the trip sponsor, Sloan said.
Lawmakers who attend Las Vegas conferences are not breaking the rule if the conferences are of legislative interest to them.
A quick glance at congressional trip reports suggests that a variety of groups are choosing to "educate" lawmakers in Las Vegas because it is a popular convention spot, not because it has anything to do with the group or its interests.
For instance:
Trade Shows
By far the top two sponsors of lawmaker trips to Las Vegas since 2000 have been the Consumer Electronics Association (49 trips) and the National Association of Broadcasters (34 trips).
The top single draw in recent years for lawmakers and legions of their aides has been CEA's Consumer Electronics Show.
The association has spent nearly $100,000 so lawmakers could visit the show. The total does not include sponsored trips for congressional staff members.
Association spokesman Jeff Joseph said the trade shows are valuable for lawmakers, not useless junkets. The association invites members on relevant committees to tour the trade show floors, speak on panels and meet industry leaders.
Joseph said there is a "clear distinction" between paying for lawmakers to go on a golf outing and bringing them to a trade show where they can "see, touch and feel the technology they are regulating."
Joseph said it is important for lawmakers to understand, for example, what digital television looks like before they try to regulate it.
The electronics show has been held in Las Vegas since 1978 to accommodate its size, CEA event director Tara Dunion said.
The show draws 130,000 visitors and 2,500 exhibitors who unveil "tens of thousands" of new products, Dunion said.
"Few other (convention) cities can compete with Las Vegas," Dunion said. "Vegas is working for us and we're contracted out with the city for at least the next 10 years."
A National Association of Broadcasters spokesman did not return four phone calls seeking comment.
The Nuclear Energy Institute also bankrolls numerous trips and is ranked No. 7 on the list of special-interest trip sponsors, shelling out $273,000 in the last five years for lawmaker travel to world-class destinations that include Barcelona, Paris and Rome.
The NEI is the nuclear power industry's lobby group and a leading advocate of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository program. The institute paid for four lawmaker trips to Las Vegas since 2000, but has sponsored numerous others for staffers, including 11 just last year. The group paid for helicopter rides to Yucca Mountain for the lawmakers, although congressional staffers typically take a bus.
Other trips to Las Vegas since 2000 were made by:
The lawmaker, who likes blackjack and dice games, is unapologetic, the Times reported.
"I like organized casino gambling," Bilirakis told the newspaper. "I like going through the looking glass into a fantasy world."
Not all lawmakers enjoy Las Vegas. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., traveled on congressional business at taxpayer expense to visit Nellis Air Force Base, and stayed in $50-a-night quarters on the base.
Kirk also took a trip to Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Energy Institute paid for his $340 helicopter ride. He supports the repository project, but not Las Vegas.
"I hate Las Vegas," Kirk told the Chicago Tribune, "and I hate gambling."
Kirk, through his spokesman Matt Towson, declined to comment on why he hates Las Vegas. "Needless to say, he doesn't gamble," Towson said.
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