LegiStorm Pro

It's hard to keep a secret in the digital age.

In early July, The Hill's Twitter Room blog posted an item regarding Rep. Pete Roskam (R-Ill.) tweeting details of a trip to Israel. The story listed seven Republican lawmakers that accompanied Roskam, but had this to say about the other traveler:

Despite last year's bitter partisan spats, it seems there was at least one area where Republicans and Democrats saw eye-to-eye -- free trips to Israel.

Members of both parties approved upwards of 50 privately funded jaunts to the Holy Land in 2009. The cost of those trips beat out all domestic trips combined to claim the year's biggest price tag for the first time in LegiStorm's records.

The Israel trips were part of our review of all 2009 privately financed trips taken by members of Congress and their staff. Overall, the number of trips taken in 2009 increased about 15 percent from 2008, while the cost increased 27 percent. However, that increase brings the number and cost of trips back in line with travel totals from 2006 and 2007. But it still far from the travel totals before the Jack Abramoff scandal caused a drastic re-evaluation of congressional travel rules.