Nov. 06--Advocacy groups called Thursday for a ban on allowing private groups to fund congressional travel until stronger rules and enforcement can be put in place.
The groups wrote House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., saying "too often these trips have become a tool for special interests, foreign governments and foreign business interests" that want to influence elected leaders "while obfuscating the source of funding for these trips."
In their letter, the advocacy groups asked Ryan set up a task force to create stronger rules and better enforcement mechanisms and halt privately sponsored trips for lawmakers and their aides until that happens.
The Tribune on Thursday published an analysis of travel by Illinois lawmakers that showed the state's 20 members of Congress made 70 foreign trips to 44 countries in the last two years. About half the trips were paid for by private groups or foreign governments; taxpayers picked up the tab for the rest of the trips.
The letter was sent by the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, the Project on Government Oversight, Public Citizen and congressional scholar James Thurber of American University.
The signers said it is important for lawmakers to understand how policy decisions affect the world but noted that privately paid trips are "rising to the level of the Jack Abramoff travel junket era."
Abramoff, while a lobbyist, took lawmakers on golf trips to Scotland several years ago. He later was convicted of public corruption and served time in prison.
kskiba@tribpub.com
