The new rules Congress passed last year requiring the disclosure of expense-paid trips members and their staff receive have sharply cut the number of free trips they have accepted. According to a short piece by Alex Knott at CQ, members of the 110^th Congress and their staff have accepted a little more than $3 million in free trips, as opposed to $7.5 million accepted by the 108^th Congress, a cut of more than half over the four years. Last year, Congress passed the new rules in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, where it was revealed that lobbyists were showering lawmakers with lavish gifts and junkets. By the way, Abramoff, who is serving a six-year sentence for a fraudulent casino deal, is to be sentenced today by a federal judge where he faces an additional 11-year sentence for corrupting Congress.

CQ lists the lawmakers who have accepted the most money in free travel so far in this Congress:

- Rep. Susan A. Davis, Calif., $55,765

- Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Ind., $53,222

- Rep. Mike Ferguson, N.J., $51,886

- Rep. Russ Carnahan, Mo., $49,978

- Rep. Mark Souder, Ind., $49,750

- Rep. George Miller, Calif., $47,625

- Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wis., $44,359

- Rep. Rick Boucher, Va., $42,219

- Rep. Howard L. Berman, Calif., $41,230

- Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Texas, $41,184

Center for Responsive Politics’ Congressional Travel database allows users to search all the trips taken by member of Congress, sponsors, industry, trip destination (both city and foreign country) and other fun data.

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On Friday, August 1, 2008, the Clerk of the House must launch a public database on the Clerk’s web site for travel and gift disclosures and personal financial disclosures filed by lawmakers. This action is mandated by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act.

Earlier this year, under mandate from the same ethics reform bill, the Senate launched a searchable database of travel and gift disclosure forms. Users can also download the entire database in XML format.

By the end of the week, we should be able to see what disclosure looks like on the House’s side.

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The prosecution has rested in the trial of Brent Wilkes, the contractor on trial for bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. The last paragraph of this Washington Post story notes that Wilkes’ defense will be that he was merely playing by the rules of the Congressional Favor Factory (now open 24 hours a day!):

[Wilkes' attorney Mark] Geragos said in his opening statement that he plans to show that Wilkes was only doing business as it is normally done in Washington, not trading favors for contracts. He is set to begin calling witnesses on Thursday.

If that’s the case, I will be just as eager to read about the defense’s presentations as I was about the prosecution’s, which included details of expensive meals and trips to distant vacations spots, including Hawaii. If Geragos is looking for examples to back up his claim, he might want to check the Center for Responsive Politics’ travel database, available here, to see that members of Congress and their staff took more than 30 trips to Hawaii since July 2005 (when federal agents made headlines by raiding Cunningham’s home), 137 trips to Las Vegas, 23 trips to Jamaica, and 48 trips to Aspen, to name a few.

Which is not to say that everyone who takes a trip is in the same league as Cunningham (or that every sponsor a Brent Wilkes), but note that interest groups tend to sponsor travel of members who oversee their industries. For example, Rep. Collin Peterson (whose office has taken more trips than anyone else’s since CRP started keeping track) seems to travel on the dime of trade groups representing agricultural interests — 11 of the 14 trips he took were sponsored by groups like the Dairy Farmers of America, the American Sugar Alliance and the Texas Farm Bureau.

Peterson is the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

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