Private interests spent a record amount to send members of Congress and their staff on trips on 2011, and the individual trips were longer and costlier than ever before.
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.
There were 555 international trips in 2011, meaning more than a third of all trips were outside the United States. The ratio dropped slightly from last year's record high, when more than 35% of the trips were to international destinations.
The costs of the international travel skyrocketed in 2011, however. Nearly $4.8 million was spent sending lawmakers, their staff and in some cases spouses overseas. The average international trip cost $8,595, a more than $2,000 increase over 2010 and more than $1,000 over the previous high set in 2009.
The $4.8 million spent on international travel rivaled the amounts spent at the height of privately financed travel before the ethics reforms. In 2004, lawmakers went on 1133 international trips worth $5.8 million.
The average trip length has increased each of the last three years, despite restrictions on the duration of trips put in place as part of the post-Abramoff reforms. The average length of 4.37 days is the longest since 2000, when LegiStorm's records begin.
The travel sponsor with the deepest pockets in 2011 was the American Israel Education Foundation, which paid more than $2 million for 145 trips to Israel, the first time any organization has cracked the $2 million mark in a year. The previous high for a single organization in a year was set by AIEF in 2009, when it spent about $1.2 million on 109 trips. The money spent by AIEF, the non-profit arm of the AIPAC lobbying organization, was more than a third of all money spent on privately-funded congressional travel this year.
Israel also regained the top spot as the most-traveled to country in 2011, after falling behind Turkey in 2010. (AIEF traditionally sends the largest delegations to Israel in non-election years.) A total of 168 trips were to Israel in 2011, ahead of Turkey's 110. No other international destination came close to those numbers; Germany was third with 27 trips.
The seven most-traveled members of Congress in 2011 were all Democrats, led by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) who took 10 trips. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was second, with nine. Lewis has ranked either No. 1 or 2 on the list of most traveled members each year since 2006. Most of the trips of the top travelers were short speaking engagements.
The most expensive trip in 2011 was sponsored by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, which paid $30,708 to send Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) and his wife to South Africa and Botswana for meetings on conservation and natural resource management. This was the second-most expensive trip LegiStorm has seen, behind only a lavish trip to London by Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.) in 2000 sponsored by Brown and Williamson Tobacco which cost $31,171.
The most private money was spent on Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) in 2011. Cooper took six trips worth $47,035, including an Aspen Institute trip to Barcelona in September worth more than $18,000 and an August trip to India sponsored by the German Marshall Fund of the United States worth more than $10,000.
The list of members of Congress who took trips worth the most money is less dominated by a single party; three Republicans are in the top 10, including Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), who took five trips worth $45,022, good for third place on the list.
