Foreign Travel

Foreign trips by senators and representatives have been one of the most visible and controversial perquisites of serving in Congress. Defenders of foreign travel see it as a valuable way to educate legislators about world problems, particularly when many congressional votes deal with foreign affairs. But critics call the trips junkets—adventures or vacation trips at taxpayers' expense. They also criticize travel paid for by corporations, nonprofits, or educational organizations, saying such trips give these groups an unfair advantage in promoting their agendas.

Most trips are sponsored by congressional committees, but House and Senate leaders receive special travel allowances. In 1988 Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat and House Speaker at the time, caused comment by taking thirteen members and seven staff aides to Australia for a week to celebrate the centennial of that country's parliament. The excursion cost $188,266.

Winter recess is a popular time for members to go on fact-finding trips, generally in more temperate climates. In January 1998 Trent Lott, a Republican from Mississippi who was Senate majority leader at the time, led four other senators, their wives, and staffers—twenty-three people in all—on a government-paid trip through Central America and Mexico, staying one night in the colonial capital of Guatemala at a luxury hotel built from a seventeenth-century monastery. Lott's office said the trip was to study trade and efforts to curb smuggling of drugs and immigrants.

Large delegations also go each year to meetings of the Interparliamentary Union and the North Atlantic Assembly, which bring together U.S. and foreign legislators. And congressional travel has provided a means of showing expressions of solidarity in the war against terrorism. In 2002 four House lawmakers, led by Democrat Peter Deutsch of Florida and Republican Jack Kingston of Georgia, flew with aides and a security detail to visit hospitalized Israelis and Israeli Arabs injured in the Palestinian uprising. Lawmakers initially said they were not on a diplomatic mission, were not traveling to areas controlled by Palestinians, and did not plan to meet with senior Israeli officials. After questions about the necessity of the trip surfaced, aides said meetings with Israeli officials had indeed been scheduled.

Often congressional delegations travel on military planes, accompanied by Marines or other military escorts who help with baggage and act as flight attendants. Embassy personnel in each city they visit are expected to set up meetings with local officials, arrange tours, and sometimes take the visitors to see night spots. But not all trips are luxury excursions. In 1989 Rep. Mickey Leland, a Texas Democrat, was killed in a plane crash while helping deliver food and supplies to famine-ridden Ethiopia.

Senators and representatives have been required since the 1950s to file accounts of travel spending, but the rules have been rewritten several times since then. In 1973 Congress voted to stop requiring that travel reports be printed in the Congressional Record, but the rule was restored in 1976 after public protest. Under the rules, committees have to file quarterly travel reports with the clerk of the House or the secretary of the Senate. Individual members, staff, or congressional groups authorized by the leadership to travel have to report within thirty days after a trip. Although information on the use of public funds for travel is once again published in the Record, it is still difficult at times to tell the true cost of travel. For example, when military transportation is used, the cost is not counted in.

Reports do not have to be filed on trips funded by the executive branch or by private groups, but members are required to list private trips on their annual financial disclosure forms. In 1989 Congress declared that members could not accept trips abroad that lasted longer than seven days (excluding travel time) from private interests. Congress reiterated this limit in 1995 as part of overall tighter restrictions on gifts.

Document Citation
"Foreign Travel." CQ Electronic Library, CQ's Congress A to Z Online Edition, coaz4d-179-8936-501117. Originally published in Congress A to Z, 4th ed., edited by David R. Tarr and Ann O'Connor (Washington: CQ Press, 2003). http://library.cqpress.com/congressaz/coaz4d-179-8936-501117 (accessed May 29, 2008).
Document URL: http://library.cqpress.com/congressaz/coaz4d-179-8936-501117

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