LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

A pro-Israel lobbying group has found a loophole in the rules limiting the ability of lobbying groups to pay for congressional travel - a loophole large enough that they are one of the leading sponsors of such travel.

The American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF) paid for more than 50 lawmakers and staff of both parties to travel to Israel in August, according to the trip disclosures in LegiStorm's database. Travelers included House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

AIEF is the fundraising arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, an influential lobbying group. Despite tough rules forbidding congressional travel paid for by lobbyists, AIPAC gets around the ban by having its nonprofit arm pay for the trips.

A staffer to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) was sentenced to three years of probation for stealing nearly $7,000 from the office account, according to the Associated Press.

The executive assistant, Caroline Valdez, forged her boss's name on a $6,000 bonus check. She also used the office credit card for pizza, groceries and airline tickets.

The judge ordered her to get counseling, saying she seemed to have a problem telling the truth.

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) has been under fire recently amid allegations that real estate assets listed on his 2008 personal financial disclosure were omitted from his 2009 disclosure.

The assets are also at the center of another controversy for the former NFL quarterback regarding a potential conflict of interest.

Several real estate development companies are listed as having $0 in value. A note says the companies no longer have any assets; "however, no money was paid or rec'd by Shuler." Shuler did list partnership stakes in The Highlands Property Group LLC and Shuler Properties LLC worth between $1 million and $5 million each. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, the development companies were folded into the Highlands Property Group LLC.

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) has found himself in the role of a de facto spokesman for the crucial Blue Dog coalition in the House during this summer's health care debate. With increased attention, however, comes increased scrutiny.

Ross sold his business at an inflated price to a pharmacy chain whose owner is a campaign contributor and has strong views on the health care debate in Washington, according to an investigation of his personal financial disclosures by ProPublica appearing in this morning's Politico. 

The Arkansas-based pharmacy chain USA Drug, with more than 170 stores in five states, bought Holly's Health Mart in 2007 for between $1 million and $1.67 million, according to Ross' financial disclosure reports for that year. The total includes $420,000 for the property itself. But local officials assessed the property at only $263,000, and an appraisal by ProPublica in August valued the property even lower.

A handful of GOP congressional staffers attended a conference earlier this month organized in part by an evangelical leader who has faced controversy based on statements that he doesn't believe it is wrong to stone gay people to death.

The conference was sponsored by Faith and Law, a congressional staffer organization, as well as a group called Fieldstead and Co. - also known as the Fieldstead Institute. On its web site, Fieldstead and Co. describes its mission as managing  "various philanthropic programs as part of a Christian worldview."

The company's reclusive founder is Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Jr., a multimillionaire philanthropist, mass transit enthusiast and hybrid car owner. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America. He has donated millions of dollars to organizations that promote his causes, such as seeking to disprove the theory of evolution and maintaining that climate change is not caused by humans.