HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
CAPITOL HILL
diplomatic missions or fact-finding tours—excursions intended
to inform lawmakers about international issues and help them do
their jobs at home. Still, members
of Congress often manage to have
some fun while they’re at it.
Lobbyists Heather and Tony
Podesta told The Washington Post
that they have entertained some
20 members of Congress at their
place in Venice over the years.
Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.)
told The Huffington Post in 2010
that she had known the Podestas
for 12 years when she met up with
them while leading a trans-Atlantic congressional delegation—an
official, taxpayer-funded trip—
Members of the
current Congress
have gone on
2,548 privatelysponsored trips
so far, collectively
worth more than
$8 million.
that happened to stop in Venice in
May 2008. She did not recall how
she and the Podestas arranged
their date, but that they ultimately met at a restaurant.
“I didn’t go to cocktails with
them, but we had dinner that everybody paid for themselves at a
restaurant they recommended,”
Berkley said. “But we didn’t talk
business at that dinner. That was
a strictly Venice dinner.”
(Socializing with lobbyists is legal if lawmakers pay for their own
meals and lodging.)
Records provided by Berkley’s
office show the trip included
16 other members of Congress
at a total cost to taxpayers of
$55,000. They spent three days in
Slovenia and four in Italy.
Congressional delegations are
just one kind of trip. The other
experience is often privatelyfinanced. In reaction to the Jack
Abramoff scandal, in which the
former lobbyist and other K Street
denizens won favors by taking
lawmakers on outrageous junkets,
Congress passed new rules in 2007
restricting what kind of free travel
and other giveaways lawmakers
could accept from outside groups.
The rules also mandated that only
nonprofits could sponsor trips.