Lobbying scandal could dent tourism

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Jan. 27, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Las Vegas stands to lose a tiny but high-profile slice of its tourist market if Congress approves a proposal to ban privately funded travel for lawmakers and their staffs.

Current law allows trade associations, many of which lobby Congress, to pay for lawmakers' travel. But the practice has been under fire in recent weeks amid fallout from a lobbying scandal.

Groups have spent almost $20 million since 2000 on nearly 6,700 "fact-finding" and "educational" trips for lawmakers, ranging from mundane day-trips in obscure towns to weeklong stays in exotic locales, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks congressional travel. The bills range from less than $100 to $20,000.

Lawmakers who have jetted off to vacation hotspots like the Bahamas, Rome and Hawaii on the dime of interest groups have been under increasing scrutiny amid partisan sniping over lobbying corruption.

Las Vegas is the No. 3 domestic destination (behind New York City and White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.) for lawmakers, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. Organizations ranging from the National Association of Broadcasters to the Walt Disney Co. bankrolled 195 lawmaker trips to Las Vegas from 2000 through 2005, paying more than $440,000 in airline, hotel and meal expenses. (Two more trips occurred this month.) Congressional staffers made even more visits to the city over the past five years.

Lawmakers have not been shy in their affection for Las Vegas.

House Energy Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, has been to the city 10 times in the last six years and confesses a weakness for playing Texas hold 'em at Bellagio, The Mirage and Mandalay Bay.

Another Las Vegas regular, Rep. Mike Bilirakis, R-Fla., told the St. Petersburg Times, "I like going through the looking glass into a fantasy world."

Members of both parties typically flock to Las Vegas for two purposes: conferences and trips to Yucca Mountain. The Consumer Electronics Manufacturer Association alone paid to bring 51 lawmakers to Las Vegas since 2000, most for its trade show.

Congressmen often are high-profile draws as keynote speakers at conferences. Groups often extend invitations to the chairmen of congressional committees that oversee their industry.

So far, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has not taken a position on a proposed travel ban that could stem the flow of lawmakers to Nevada, spokesman Vince Alberta said.

A leading lobby group official Thursday said lawmakers likely would not come to Las Vegas -- certainly not as often -- if they had to pay for it from their own congressional office budgets. But John Graham, president and chief executive of the American Society of Association Executives, also said Las Vegas conference attendance likely would not suffer if lawmakers were no longer attending.

Graham, whose group lobbies on behalf of lobby groups, said the association had launched a campaign to kill, or at least alter, the travel ban proposal. His group is urging Congress to approve new rules aimed at restricting vacation-like trips while allowing "legitimate" travel.

Most trips offer lawmakers and their aides an invaluable experience to see firsthand the places and facilities they regulate, Graham said.

"I don't think the system is all that broken," Graham said.

But watchdog groups have long said the trips allow special interests to buy access, time and influence with lawmakers. They say it is unseemly when lawmakers treat the trips like vacations, penciling in time for gambling, golf, expensive dinners and even day spas.

Nevada lawmakers have been critical of the Nuclear Energy Institute, another top sponsor of lawmaker and staff trips to Las Vegas, for Yucca Mountain visits.

Typically the trips are just a few days and don't allow time for fun, NEI spokesman Mitch Singer said. There is no educational substitute for a Yucca visit, Singer said, adding that NEI only pays for meals, hotel and airfare. Lawmakers are on their own if they want to further enjoy the city, he said.

"We really subscribe to the spirit and the letter of the law," Singer said.

Graham said lawmakers and their aides should be allowed to enjoy a limited amount of down time on a trip, like a dinner or visiting an exhibit, but it would be inappropriate (though not currently illegal) for a lawmaker to travel to Las Vegas for a five-minute speech and two days of golfing. A fine line separates a reasonable indulgence and an expenses-paid vacation, he said.

"It's clearly subjective," Graham said. "Most people know it when they see it."

Benjamin Grove can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at grove@ lasvegassun.com

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