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Congressional Travel
Politicians Still Cashing in on Free Trips
The rules have changed, but Florida's congressional delegation is still getting a free rides, paid for by private interests.
Here’s a sampling of some of the other locations Florida lawmakers have visited from 2000 to 2009, compliments of special interest groups.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Miami) and her husband, Dexter, traveled to Tel Aviv in August, with the Doheny Global Group, an energy development firm, picking up the tab. “The purpose of the trip is to understand the impact of the political economic factors on the economy of Mideast and Europe. Doheny develops real estate and renewable energy in this region and must gain deep understanding of all factors affecting stability of region, economy, politics,” Irwin Katsof, a partner with the Doheny Group, stated in a travel certification form filed with the House Ethics Committee. Ros-Lehtinen is the highest-ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Trip Cost: $13,600
Sponsor: Doheny Global Group
Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Jacksonville) and his wife, Katharine, traveled to Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2007 to attend a conference on political Islam.
Trip Cost: $6,469
Sponsor: Aspen Institute
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Miami) and his wife, Cristina, traveled to Casablanca, Morocco, in 2003 to meet with officials of the U.S.-Morocco Council on Trade and Investment and government officials.
Trip Cost: $9,716
Sponsor: U.S.-Morocco Council on Trade and Investment
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Brooksville) and her late husband, Harvey, took a six-day trip to Berlin in 2007 to attend a conference on Europe and Russia.
Trip Cost: $8,766
Sponsor: Aspen Institute
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Ocala) took a seven-day trip to Paris and Stuttgart, Germany, in 2005 to learn about trade issues.
Trip Cost: $5,363
Sponsor: International Management and Development Institute
During the August congressional recess, freshman Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Tequesta) and his wife, Tara, took a one-week trip to Israel courtesy of the American Israel Education Foundation. The non-profit group, which is affiliated with AIPAC, the Washington-based pro-Israel lobby, provides educational programming about the U.S.-Israel relationship and has spent more than $3.9 million sending at least 541 lawmakers and staffers to Israel since 2000. An itinerary for Rooney’s trip shows 12-hour days packed with sightseeing and meetings with high-ranking Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. It included visits to Jerusalem, Israel’s border with Lebanon, the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, a kibbutz on the northern border, historical sites around the Sea of Galilee, as well as a tour of the Masada archaeological site and the Dead Sea. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-New Smyrna Beach) also traveled to Tel Aviv during the second week of August on a $10,075 trip sponsored by the AIEF.
Trip Cost: $14,948
Sponsor: American Israel Education Foundation