Attention Congressional Users!

There were 1,600 privately funded congressional trips in 2011, worth a total of more than $5.8 million, the largest amount since ethics reforms were enacted in 2007 in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal. The total amount is the highest since 2005, when a record 4,917 trips were taken totaling $9.9 million. The record for money spent came in 2004, when 4,780 trips cost nearly $10.4 million.

LegiStorm's figures were used by CBS This Morning in a report which aired today looking at privately financed travel for congress.

Not only did the total cost and number of trips rise in 2011, the average trip was longer and costlier. The average trip in 2011 lasted more than four days and cost $3,638, both record figures. The average trip cost is up nearly $800 over 2010, which was the previous high.

Rick Santorum has positioned himself as a Washington outsider during his presidential campaign, but he's got plenty of connections on K Street.

In fact, the former senator has more revolving door connections than all but a dozen other senators over the past decade, with 28 former staffers who have also lobbied in the past decade.

Santorum has avoided registering as a lobbyist himself although he's worked as a consultant to lobbying firms after his failed re-election bid in 2006. Santorum earned $1.3 million in 2010 and the first half of 2011, with a large chunk of it coming from consulting and media work, according to the Washington Post

LegiStorm has launched a new feature for our Pro subscribers, giving them even more powerful information on revolving door lobbyists.

We have added the original lobbying forms for all revolving door lobbyists, allowing Pro users to dig deeper into the lobbying activity of congressional members and staff. We believe this change enhances our revolving door information available to Pro subscritbers, which already included the most in-depth and real-time tracking of the revolving door between K Street and Congress available anywhere.

Pro users can access the list of lobbying filings for any person who has gone through the revolving door by clicking the "Lobbying" option in the search results, or in the right-hand menu on any page featuring the person. On the biographical summary pages, there is also a "See all filings" in the section detailing lobbying activities.

A Senate committee passed legislation today prohibiting insider trading by lawmakers, and the legislation includes provisions to increase transparency regarding senators and Senate staff stock holdings.

The bill would require all senators' personal financial disclosure forms to be available online, according to The Wall Street Journal. The bill also applies to Senate staff. Currently, the forms are only available by going to the Office of Public Records in a Senate office building. LegiStorm makes the forms available online by printing hard copies of all disclosures, then scanning and uploading the forms to our website.

The House currently makes member disclosures available online. Both the House and Senate require senior staff to fill out disclosures as well, which are only available through the public records rooms. LegiStorm is now the only online source for staffer financial disclosures.

An aide to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is staying employed there after charges were dropped following his recent arrest on running an illegal strip club in Jackson, Miss., a spokesman for his office told Caught Our Eye.

The aide, Saleem Baird, is a legislative correspondent making a $52,000 salary out of the conservative senator's Washington office (a fact we know because then-Rep. Wicker's 2006 bill reacting to LegiStorm's launch with a ban on the publication of congressional staff salaries went nowhere). While working in Washington, Baird was also managing the club in Jackson, Miss. The staffer was arrested Sept. 3 at Jackson's Level 3 nightclub along with three women who were allegedly nude on stage when vice officers arrived. As the police report notes, "A male who identified himself as Saleem Baird advised that he was the manager and in charge. He was also placed under arrest for Violation of City Ordinance."

The arrest was first reported by the blog Jackson Jambalaya. LegiStorm first published this story Wednesday as a Caught Our Eye item exclusively for Pro subscribers.