As another short holiday recess approaches, members of Congress and their staffs have filed 86 trips at a cost to private groups of more than $590,000 from their last legislative break.
Republicans took 44 trips compared to Democrats' 42 during the spring recess, though the cost of Republican trips was $312,000 to Democrats' $279,000. The travels were both near and far, from national security sessions in Quantico, Va. to foreign policy briefings with European Union officials in Belgium. The numbers only include privately financed travel and do not include trips funded by the U.S. government or other governments.
The privately funded globetrotting included 33 trips for members, ranging from a foreign policy conference in Berlin, policy sessions in San Diego and a dinner reception in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
For example, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) traveled to Brussels at a cost of nearly $10,000 to Johns Hopkins University's Center for Transatlantic Relations and Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) attended a luncheon on agriculture and energy policy issues in Dallas that cost ConservAmerica $845.
Sensenbrenner's Belgium trip was expected to provide "an invaluable opportunity to discuss data sharing and privacy issues with members of the European Parliament," given his connection to the USA Freedom Act, according to a trip disclosure form. The congressman, who took the trip with his chief of staff, authored the bill and original Patriot Act.
Other trip sponsors included MIT's Institute of Technology Security Studies Program, which spent $25,000 for 20 travelers to visit Massachusetts for a series of sessions on international security and a tour of the Lincoln Laboratory.
LegiStorm has tracked 795 privately-funded trips so far this year, with 556 by Republicans and 239 by Democrats, at a cost to sponsors of more than $1.8 million.
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