FREE TRIPS UNDER FIRE HOUSE MEMBERS DEFEND JUNKETS.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Southern California House members, family members and aides traveled last year to the far reaches of the globe without ever having to reach for their wallets, thanks to the special-interest groups that picked up their tabs.

Disclosure documents filed with the House clerk's office show that think tanks, corporations, trade groups and foreign interests lavished tens of thousands of dollars worth of air fares, hotels and meals on local House members in 2001.

Nearly every disclosure form listed the reason for the trip as ``fact finding.'' The travelers defend their trips as educational and necessary. Critics argue that a comped congressman runs the danger of being perceived as a compromised lawmaker.

Valley-area trip-takers included Rep. Howard Berman, D-Mission Hills, whose six free trips included jaunts with his wife, Janice, to Grand Cayman Island and Helsinki, Finland.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, and his wife, Janet, were hosted three times, with an itinerary that included Helsinki and Florence, Italy.

Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, and his wife, Patricia, attended an all-expenses-paid conference in Qatar, an oil-rich emirate on the Persian Gulf.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, visited Armenia with his bills paid by a Glendale-based Armenian group. And he recently returned from a tour of Israel and neighboring countries that was paid for by the Center for Peace in the Middle East, but forms for that trip have not been filed yet.

``Each trip is has to be evaluated on its own merits,'' Schiff said. ``I felt this was a good opportunity because the Armenian National Congress is a recognized group that is very active in our community.''

No vacation

Schiff, who also also argued that his foreign travels fit in with his role as a member of the House International Relations Committee, said his five-day trip to Armenia was anything but a vacation. Two days were devoted to air travel, with three days of meetings sandwiched in between.

``Meeting the leaders and seeing the conditions firsthand helped me understand the difficulties in the region and the impact of U.S. aid,'' he said.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Oxnard, and Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, took no free trips during 2001. But Sherman did allow an aide to be comped to the tune of $1,000 at a New York seminar sponsored by the Securities Industry Association.

``Neither Mr. Gallegly nor his staff accept sponsored trips except on the rare occasion when there is a key issue and no other way to get information,'' said aide Tom Pfeifer. ``There's a public perception that taking a free trip can compromise legislation. Why go on a trip and raise that conflict when we can get information from other sources?''

Berman defended the trips.

``These are not trips where you sit around a resort,'' said Gene Smith, Berman's chief of staff. ``They have a bad reputation, but the vast majority are very useful and serious. It's important to get out in the world and see the effect of America's policies. To think that elected officials should make laws for the U.S. without direct exposure is the worst kind of knee-jerk reaction.''

Smith, who took five hosted trips in 2001 including ones to Colombia and Vietnam, also argued that privately financed travel has become more necessary due to public opposition to official taxpayer-paid congressional delegation outings, also known as ``codels.''

Just one side

But House members and staffers who go on sponsored trips get only one side of the story, said Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project, a watchdog group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader.

``Nobody is going to pay thousands of dollars to host a lawmaker and give both sides of the story,'' he said.

Ruskin argued that all official travel should be limited to codels with no-frills agendas and that the public should be willing to pay for the outings.

``It's penny-wise and pound-foolish to oppose codels,'' he said. ``You end up with a member beholden to special interests.''

Ruskin and other critics said the number of hosted trips appears to be increasing each year, but they noted that no formal studies have been made of the trend.

Meredith McGehee, senior vice president of the watchdog group Common Cause, agreed with Smith that Congress needs to travel and educate itself on issues. But she advocates limiting trips to ``topics that are truly in the public interest.'' She would further limit sponsorships to educational groups like the Aspen Foundation, a Colorado-based, nonpartisan think tank.

More public disclosure

Last year, Aspen paid the travel costs of dozens of House members attending its conferences, including the Helsinki meeting on U.S.-Russia relations that featured the Bermans and the Waxmans and the Florence session on the global environment that included the Waxmans.

McGehee also advocated better public disclosure of hosted travel, including postings on a government Internet Web site. Schiff said he would support such a move.

House members are required to file disclosure forms, listing the value of all freebies, with the clerk's office within 30 days of their return from a hosted trip. But the only way to view the documents is to visit the Legislative Resource Office, which is tucked away in the basement of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. The documents are stored there in a set of old-fashioned ring binders.

Khalid Saffuri, chairman of the Washington-based Islamic Institute, is among the hundreds of eager hosts willing to cover travel expenses in return for face time with a House member. He said his Qatar junket, which included the McKeons, was all business.

``Mr. McKeon was an important part of our discussions on free markets, human rights, freedom of speech and other topics involving reforms in the Arab world,'' said Saffuri. ``We were glad to have him as our guest.''

Saffuri also indicated that the McKeons were willing to venture where more pampered House trip-takers refused to tread. ``There's not much to do in Qatar for a good time, like golf courses and resorts,'' he said. ``One member turned down my invitation, saying he would have come if it was held somewhere exotic, like Paris or Cairo.''

Local House members continued to travel the globe last week. Waxman was on the road to Morocco, Egypt, Israel and Lebanon on a taxpayer-paid codel. McKeon was also on a codel on educational issues in London, Paris, Brussels and Berlin.

Berman was in El Salvador, gathering facts on a proposed bill that would grant immigration relief to Salvadoran refugees in the United States, as the guest of the Association of Salvadorans in Los Angeles.

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SOURCE: House of Representatives