Your lawmaker's vacation -- and who paid for it

A recent taxpayer-funded trip Afghanistan and Africa by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, for instance, wasn’t exactly to some quiet vacation spot or resort town. Marshall is on the House Armed Services Committee.

Many more congressional trips were financed — for better or worse — not by taxpayers but by private groups that want the attention of Georgia’s members of Congress.

Some examples:

● U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey and his daughter traveled to Taiwan Aug. 5-8, courtesy of Fu Jen Catholic University. According to public records, the school paid more than $21,800 to host the Marietta Republican and his daughter, including $1,260 in lodging and $600 in meals. Two members of Gingrey’s staff also went, with the university picking up their combined tab of $12,450 as well. Gingrey’s trip was the most expensive congressional summer trip, according to LegiStorm, a Washington, D.C., organization that tracks congressional public disclosure records.

● Roswell Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Price and his wife took an eight-day, $15,500 excursion to Israel during the first week of August that was paid for by the American Israel Education Fund, records show. Price was among a large group of Republican House members who toured Israel and met with government officials while there. A group of Democrats — none from Georgia — took a similar trip to Israel.

● Atlanta Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis and a staff member spent two days in June in Chicago so Lewis could speak at a high school graduation ceremony. The John Marshall Metropolitan High School Alumni Association spent $1,500 for meals, airfare and hotel rooms for that trip. Lewis was the only Democrat from Georgia to file public disclosures for sponsor-funded travel, according to LegiStorm.

● Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston visited Hollywood earlier this month, courtesy of Bill Maher. The comedian and television talk show host of "Maher Live Inc." paid $1,811 for a two-day trip for the Savannah congressman to appear on his show. Kingston took his son on the trip but paid for his son’s expenses himself, according to public records.

● Congressional staffers hit the road, too. Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s chief of staff spent July 4 in Cuba as part of a four-day, $1,800 fact-finding trip paid for by the New America Foundation.

● Other congressional summer trips were less exotic. Republican U.S. Rep Paul Broun of Athens took a $280 trip to Jacksonville courtesy of the Georgia Society of Ophthalmology to give a speech about health care, and a $574 trip to Hickory, N.C., to speak at a Faith and Freedom Institute gathering, according to public records. Rep. John Linder, a Duluth Republican, got a $1,000 day trip in June from the Central Missouri Citizens for Fair Tax to talk about his thoughts and his book about eliminating the Internal Revenue Service and revamping the tax code.

Congressional ethics regulations do not prohibit members from taking trips paid for by private entities — as long as the travel is related to their official duties and as long as registered lobbyists don’t accompany them.

Some observers say it’s better for private organizations to pay for congressional trips than for taxpayers to foot the bill.

“We don’t think privately funded travel is evil in itself ... and we wouldn’t want to have all this money paid for by the taxpayer,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a congressional watchdog group in Washington.

Members of Congress and their staffs are quick to point out that the trips were all business.

“All I would say is, look at our schedule,” Price said of his Israel trip. “We went from sun up to sundown almost every day.”

While in Israel, Price and other members of Congress met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, among others.

Price said the trip directly benefits some of his Georgia constituents, too.

“My district has a very large population of members of the Jewish faith,” he said. “One of their major concerns ... is the American-Israeli relationship.”

Gingrey’s staff said his schedule in Taiwan was packed with official business, too — made all the more hectic by a typhoon that hit while he was there.

“I hope you aren’t characterizing this as a junket,” said Gingrey’s chief of staff, David Sours.

Sours and Gingrey spokeswoman Stephanie Valle pointed out that Gingrey is one of four co-chairs of the House Taiwan Caucus, and the only one of the four who had yet to visit Taiwan.

While there, Gingrey met with Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou — who in a news release referred to Gingrey as “an extremely senior member of the House of Representatives and ... one of [Taiwan’s] most loyal friends in the U.S. Congress.”

Gingrey also met with Taiwan’s minister of health and observed the country’s government-run health care system, spokeswoman Valle said.

In Cuba, meanwhile, Isakson’s chief of staff, Chris Carr, met with the staff of the nation’s medical school and top officials of the trade, tourism and foreign ministries, Carr said.

“The question of relaxing the embargo on Cuba is an overriding issue for U.S.-Cuban policy, and it is important to get firsthand understanding of the impact and ramifications of continuing or ending it,” Carr said in an e-mail interview.

A review of public records compiled by LegiStorm shows that members of Congress from other states and their staffs traveled to Paris, San Francisco, San Diego, Aspen, Colo., Palm Beach, Fla., and a few Caribbean islands over the past few months. Stated reasons ranged from attending a conference on substance abuse to touring a nuclear plant, with a good number of speeches and official meetings in the mix.

Sponsors of private congressional travel say they’re helping educate lawmakers on important issues.

At the left-leaning New America Foundation, Cuba research director Anya Landau French said the educational experience is invaluable for members of Congress. The foundation is a major advocate of loosening travel and trade restrictions on Cuba.

“They can listen to me here in Washington, D.C., they can listen to lobbyists who may think differently, but the best way for them to get the facts is to go down there and see it for themselves,” she said.

Jack Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College in California, said congressional travel can serve a purpose: A broader view of the world can lead to better policy decisions and lawmaking.

“Much of the time, however, the populist image happens to be true,” Pitney added.

Many congressional trips, he said, “are thinly veiled vacations.”