LegiStorm

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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A former Louisiana congressman has registered to lobby on behalf of a home-state parish on FEMA and flooding issues.

Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) resigned his seat in 2013 and became secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, a position he left in 2014. The former congressman, who has also served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and as an elected member of the Jackson Parish Police Jury, joined the Picard Group in February.

Alexander has registered to lobby on behalf of the Cameron Parish Police Jury, which acts as the governing body of the parish. Cameron Parish, located west of New Orleans on the Gulf of Mexico, was devastated by Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike three years later.

In his first filing, Alexander registered to advocate on FEMA direct administrative cost for the potential de-obligation of Rita funds, adjustment and reauthorization of the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act and other flooding and coastal study issues.

An alumnus of the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama White Houses, as well as the Senate, has filed his first lobbying registration.

David Vandivier has an extensive resume in government, beginning with a 1994 internship for then-Rep. Tony P. Hall (D-Ohio). He started in March as director of government affairs at BNY Mellon and has registered to lobby on Dodd-Frank implementation and extending the Internal Revenue Code exemption for "active financing" income.

The exemption helps financial services firms defer U.S. taxes on certain income earned overseas.

Vandivier has made several rounds through Congress, the White House and various government agencies since the 1990s. His longest stint in Congress was as professional staff member to the Senate Budget Committee between 2003 and 2009.

Over the years, the new lobbyist has also interned in Vice President Al Gore's office and worked for the Department of the Treasury, Office of Management and Budget and Council of Economic Advisers, where he was chief of staff from 2011-13. He joined BNY Mellon after departing the IRS, where he served as senior adviser to Commissioner John Koskinen starting in 2013.

Vandivier has a bachelor's from Franklin College and a 1998 master's from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

A longtime attorney for the Senate Legislative Counsel's office has been picked up by Lyft, taking a position as legislative counsel with the ride-sharing firm.

The driving app company, along with Uber which has become particularly popular on the Hill, has launched lobbying efforts in the last few years as it confronts concerns from the taxi industry. Robert Grant moved in April to Lyft, where he serves as legislative counsel.

Grant has nearly a decade of experience working for the Senate Legislative Counsel in stints as staff attorney and assistant and senior counsel since his first job there in 2004. In between, he has also worked as senior counsel to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The former congressional staffer, who has a bachelor's from the University of Virginia and a 2002 law degree from Tulane University Law School, also worked as an economist at the IRS before getting his law degree.

For many of the youngest Capitol Hill staffers, experience in a congressional office tops their career highlights. But for one 20-year-old who works for Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), graduating before turning 21 and starting in Congress may rank somewhere in the middle.

Katelynne Cox is a 20-year-old legislative correspondent and staff assistant who has recorded one album with a label and two EPs in her career as a teen pop singer. Her album "One Girl" was released in 2011 with Red Hammer Records following her first independent EP in 2008 and a second, "Erase It," last summer.

"Politicians and our parents, we can't leave it up to them. We may be young but we are strong and this is our chance to begin," she sings in one song.

Cox has a bachelor's in communication studies and political science from the University of Missouri - Columbia and also has experience modeling.