Foreign governments typically can't pay for lawmakers to fly overseas - it's against the law in most circumstances. But one member of Congress, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), recently discovered another way to visit a luxury resort in a Caribbean country apparently courtesy of the government there.
Clarke disclosed that she was visiting Antigua and Barbuda and paid by the New York-based PM Group, otherwise known as the Portfolio Marketing Group, to attend the renaming ceremony for the country's highest peak to be Mount Obama. But in the forms filled out as part of the new House requirements for privately financed travel, the PM Group disclosed a representative of the Antigua and Barbuda government as a person to contact about the trip. Perhaps not surprisingly, the PM Group's web site shows Antigua and Barbuda to be a client.
So did the government of Antigua and Barbuda actually sponsor the trip?
Who the actual sponsor is has legal consequences. The Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, while allowing some travel outside the country, prohibits a foreign government from paying for trip from the U.S. to another country. The law's language makes it clear that "a representative of such a government" is considered the same as the government itself when determining what is permissible.
Another clue about who sponsored the trip might come from the hotel rate.
Clarke lists the expenses paid for the trip as only $241 per night, including meals. The cheapest room in Hermitage Bay, where she stayed, goes for $600 per night at this time of year for a single occupant. Clarke's more generous rate appears to be close to the $200 rate the resort advertises for children. The resort's web site does not list the government rate but typically government rates are at a substantial discount from the publicly advertised value.
The available evidence points to a government-sponsored trip. So it's not clear why the House ethics committee gave its blessing.
The one exception to the foreign government travel prohibition comes under the Mutual Education and Cultural Exchange Act, which allows foreign governments to pay for standing educational or cultural programs blessed by the State Department. But that law doesn't apply to events like this one.
This post is part of our occasional series "Storm Tips," in which we highlight interesting items we stumble across in our raw records.
