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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.

According to the report, the committee has interviewed Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and some of the people around him in regard to the ongoing investigation into information surrounding his finances and a trip he took to St. Martin. Rangel has been under fire for failing to pay taxes on assets and income, and for leaving information out of his personal financial disclosures.

According to the report, however, he isn't the only one who may have omitted information from his disclosures. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) has been under scrutiny since 2006 for having failed to reveal portions of his stake in real estate. According to the Post, the ethics committee report seems to indicate that the Justice Department may have taken over that investigation. Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) may also have omitted "property, income and liabilities" from her disclosures, according to the Post.

Others named in the report include subjects of a previously-known investigation into lawmakers associated with a lobbying firm that broke up after its offices were raided by the FBI early this year. PMA Group has been the subject of a federal investigation into earmarks and "pay-to-play" activities.