[W]ASHINGTON — While publicly funded congressional delegations take lawmakers around the globe, legislators don’t only travel on the taxpayer’s dime.
Members of Congress also travel on trips funded by outside groups.
There are restrictions on what types of groups can pay for members of Congress to travel. Lobbyists, for instance, are restricted. Outside-funded travel goes through an ethics review process.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., is the only member of Vermont’s delegation who has traveled internationally with trips funded by outside groups. He went abroad seven times in the last four years on trips paid for by outside organizations, the majority of which were sponsored by the nonpartisan Aspen Institute.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., disclosed five trips since 2014, all of which were within the United States. His most recent trip was in January 2017 to Atlanta, funded by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., did not disclose any trips sponsored by outside groups. David Carle, a longtime press aide to Leahy, said he could not recall the senator taking a trip sponsored by a private group.
Staff for both senators disclosed privately sponsored travel to domestic areas.
Ryan Scoville, a law professor at Marquette University Law School who has followed issues around congressional travel, noted that trips funded by private groups have different disclosure requirements than official delegations.
While a majority of trips that members of Congress take are funded publicly, many are sponsored by private organizations “and this creates a possibility of corruption,” Scoville said.
Congressional delegations, funded publicly and often referred to as CODELs, must be approved in advance by leaders in the House or Senate. However, privately funded trips go through a different process where they are reviewed by the House or Senate Ethics committees to ensure they meet ethics rules. Then members file disclosure forms, which are available to the public online.
“The primary result of these differences is that members who travel on private funding have more freedom to act without approval from congressional leadership,” Scoville said.
Kate Hamilton, a spokesperson for Welch, said the Vermont congressman’s travel funded by outside groups is part of his congressional work.
“The trips in which he participates are those with an agenda connected to his committee work, regardless of whether it is a CODEL or privately sponsored,” Hamilton said.
She noted that in most instances, the trips Welch has gone on have been associated with the nonpartisan Aspen Institute, which runs a program that aims to help educate members of Congress on public policy issues. One Aspen Institute trip, last February, took Welch and his wife, Margaret Cheney, to New Delhi and Hyderabad in India. The trip, which cost $15,145 for both Welch and Cheney, included business class air travel and a stay at a five-star hotel.
The agenda shows a program that was full most days from 7:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. Activities included visiting a slum to observe how a U.S.-funded program is helping address sanitation issues and a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Our purpose is education, not advocacy,” the group wrote in a letter inviting Welch on the trip. He was one of 25 House members invited to attend.
Welch wrote on his disclosure that the focus of the program on health care, energy and climate change related to his congressional work on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The trip also related to his position on the Oversight Committee, where his work involves looking at how effective programs the US funds overseas are.
Sanders’ travel included trips to address groups, such as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and to Los Angeles to appear on the “Real Time with Bill Maher” show.
