Congress skirting rewritten '07 rules

Washington - Five years ago, ethics scandals brought new restrictions on lobbyists and resulted in a dramatic drop in travel for members of Congress.

Now the number of trips funded by outside groups is soaring back to record levels, fueled by big-spending education and charity organizations that sometimes are just an arm of lobbying groups.

"That's just a huge, gaping loophole that the Ethics Committee is allowing," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the watchdog group Public Citizen.

It is also an exceedingly popular loophole — one with which Georgia's members of Congress are familiar. Critics say such trips can give powerful special interests an unfair advantage over others that can't afford to do the same.

For example, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is one of the most powerful lobbying interests on Capitol Hill, helping spur Congress to send billions in military aid to Israel and impose tough sanctions on its archenemy Iran. AIPAC's charitable affiliate, the American Israel Education Foundation, was the biggest outside spender on congressional trips last year.

The AIEF has taken hundreds of lawmakers — including almost all of Georgia's congressional delegation or its staffers — and their spouses — to the Holy Land. The two groups share an address, a phone number, personnel and millions of dollars, but are legally separate entities — organized for tax purposes into charity and advocacy wings.

Some of the advocates who helped write Congress' landmark ethics overhaul in 2007 said groups such as AIEF, the Heritage Foundation and the Campaign for Public Health Foundation are violating the spirit of rules banning lobbyist involvement in congressional trip-planning as travel by House members is growing rapidly.

Both Georgia senators and 12 of the state's 13 House members have traveled themselves or sent a staffer to Israel on AIEF's dime. According to records maintained by LegiStorm, a nonpartisan website that compiles congressional data, AIEF has spent nearly $7 million on travel for members of Congress, spouses and staffers since 2000 — including $2 million last year.

AIPAC spokesman Adam Harris wrote in an email that AIEF submits detailed information about each trip to the House and Senate ethics committees in advance and the trips "offer an in-depth perspective into Israel's foreign policy, regional threats, national security, history and culture."

Roswell Republican Rep. Tom Price said he came away from the Israel trip with "a perspective and appreciation of that area of the world that you can't get other than being there."

Travel picks up

Outside group-funded travel is separate from taxpayer-funded congressional delegation trips, which arise out of lawmakers' committee work. This category also does not cover political travel paid for with campaign cash.

Trips funded by outside groups increased in number (1,600), average duration (more than four days) and average cost ($3,638) in 2011, according to LegiStorm. Steady increases have come each year since the 2007 ethics law put a damper on travel.

The pace of trips has only accelerated in 2012, including Tifton Rep. Austin Scott's January excursion to Taiwan with his wife and two staff members. They flew first class and stayed in the $200-per-night Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, with the total tab of nearly $45,000 picked up by Fu Jen Catholic University, an elite school on the island that has hosted several members of Congress.

Scott said in a statement that the trip was valuable to his work on the Armed Services and Agriculture committees, and he used a meeting with Taiwan's president to talk about the contentious issue of U.S. beef exports.

Why has the pace picked up?

"For a while, people weren't exactly sure how to get around the new rules and didn't want to be the poster child," said Meredith McGehee, policy director of ethics reform advocacy group the Campaign Legal Center. "You don't want to be the first one out of the gate. A lot of people sit back and wait to see what other more aggressive or less risk-averse groups do."

Under more scrutiny

The landmark 2007 ethics law was a response in part to scandals involving superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, who lavished gifts and trips on lawmakers that included a golf excursion to Scotland on a private jet.

Such luxurious junkets have all but vanished, as members and outside groups say the ethics scrutiny is heavy. Members must submit cost estimates, agendas and other invited guests for their trips in advance to be cleared by the House or Senate ethics committee.

"If you show [ethics staffers] a proposed schedule and you have an unblocked 90 minutes, it's like they think you're going to give them a $4,000 spa treatment in that span," said Michael Franc, who heads the Heritage Foundation's outreach to Capitol Hill and plans yearly retreats for dozens of conservative House members. "The radar for the counsel — I guess they have to be this way — but it's really high."

Georgia members defended the trips as an important part of their service and said packed schedules mean plenty of education and little downtime.

DeKalb County Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson, who has been on privately funded trips to Israel, Turkey, China, Ghana and Liberia in the past two years, said the trips are vital to learn about issues he faces on the Armed Services and Judiciary committees, but he remains skeptical of the sponsors' aims.

"You've got to keep in mind that whoever is paying for the trip has a purpose to show you things as they see it," he said. "So it helps you broaden your perspective, and I think most members are pretty conscientious about these trips."

How groups do it

Several organizations sponsor congressional trips with charitable groups — known by their tax code category of "501(c)(3)" — that are intertwined with policy advocacy 501(c)(4) groups. Heritage, an influential conservative think tank, conducts lobbying activities through the separate Heritage Action for America.

Seven of Georgia's eight Republican House members have attended the Heritage retreat in the past two years. In 2011, it was held in Simi Valley, Calif., at President Ronald Reagan's library, and this year it was in Philadelphia. Franc said some registered lobbyists speak on panels or attend events, but they do not travel with the members.

Progressive Congress holds a conference for members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus paid for by its charity arm rather than an affiliated policy advocacy group. Bo Shuff, the group's chief of staff, said it bars registered lobbyists from attending its conferences. The agenda for its Baltimore conference this year, attended by Johnson, focused on broad topics such as education and the environment and how to deliver a progressive message.

Atlanta-based anti-poverty group CARE also has a lobbying arm separate from the charitable wing that hosted Georgia Republicans Sen. Johnny Isakson and Savannah Rep. Jack Kingston in Uganda this year, a trip that focused in part on U.S. efforts to track warlord Joseph Kony.

Staffers for Atlanta Democratic Rep. David Scott and Albany Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labs in Atlanta last year as guests of the Campaign for Public Health Foundation, a charity spinoff of a group lobbying for increased funding for the CDC.

Marietta Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey went on trips last year that included Africa and Germany, helping him amass the third most expensive outside-funded travel bills in the Georgia delegation in this Congress, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis.

LegiStorm ranks Atlanta Democratic Rep. John Lewis the fourth most-traveled current member of Congress, with 88 trips sponsored by outside groups since 2000. The trips are largely tied to Lewis' role in the civil rights movement, which makes him a coveted speaker at universities, churches and civic groups.