Lawmakers still let firms pay travel tab

And Seattle-area companies -- led by Microsoft Corp. -- paid tens of thousands of dollars to fly those members of Congress and their colleagues around the country.

"There is ample evidence that the junket mentality continues, even after Abramoff," said Sheila Krumholtz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group that released its own database of congressional trips this month. The database contains trips taken from July 2005 until August this year.

The practice of privately funded travel by congressional officials has been under scrutiny since details of improper trips paid for by disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff emerged. Abramoff, who once worked in the Washington, D.C., office of Seattle law firm Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, has since pleaded guilty to related criminal charges.

In all, the city's congressional delegation and their staffs took more than 40 privately funded trips worth more than $100,000, according to a Seattle P-I analysis of travel data provided by Krumholtz's group.

Local companies underwrote a few of those trips but were very active sponsoring trips for other congressional officials. Sponsors based in Seattle or with major facilities here were responsible for at least $100,000 worth of trips, according to the center's data.

The most active was Microsoft, sponsor of at least 29 trips worth a total of more than $60,000. Also active were Weyerhaeuser Co. and Plum Creek Timber, according to the group's report of congressional records.

Officials at companies contacted by the P-I said they sponsor trips to give members of Congress or their staffs on-the-ground exposure to their businesses.

"I will say that we willingly work to offer our expertise, and we believe it's important for the industry overall and for Microsoft to get those who make policy to understand the issues.," said Ginny Terzano, a company executive in Washington, DC..

Terzano said Microsoft often encourages government officials, consumer advocates and others to visit the Redmond campus because technology companies face a particular challenge.

"The issues are very complex and constantly evolving. I think that we really do have a responsibility as the leading software company in the world to provide a resource to those who are writing policy," he said.

Members of Congress and their staff made dozens of trips to the Seattle area, including trips by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who made an overnight visit to speak to trial lawyers in July; five House and Senate staffers who visited Seattle for a tour of trade and aviation facilities paid for by the Port of Seattle; and five other staffers who came on a three-day trip to tour Amgen Inc.'s Helix Project.

Elsewhere, trips by the Washington delegation or their staff included Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronics show, Kazakhstan to meet with businessmen and officials in that Central Asian country and Orlando, Fla., for a meeting of Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal interest group.

Businesses and trade associations with interests before Congress sponsored the majority of trips by local members and staff, although other trips were taken by non-profit organizations without a direct stake in legislative outcomes.

The office of Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was the only one which did not report any outside travel. Only Rep. Jim McDermott and Sen. Patty Murray, both Democrats, accepted privately funded trips for themselves.

McDermott took the most trips (10) for the most money (more than $40,000). His office totaled two dozen trips worth close to $75,000. McDermott's trips were sponsored by an ideological potpourri of groups, including the conservative Heritage Foundation and liberal Physicians for Social Responsibility.

He said he is proud of his travel, especially overseas trips that he said are part of his focus on international trade as well as human rights and public health. He said that as a Democrat, he doesn't have the ability of GOP committee chairmen to set up congressional delegations.

"We've been in the minority for the last 12 years. When Tom Foley was there, it was simple for me to do the trips we need," he said. Foley, an Eastern Washington Democrat, was the last Democrat to serve as speaker of the House.

McDermott said it's important to make sure that every trip is educational and not a junket.

"I don't want to get in that kind of a problem. I think we make the Congress look bad, we make everybody look bad if we aren't careful," he said.

Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., took no trips himself but had four staffers who did. They took five trips worth less than $3,000 combined. All were short hops to public-policy meetings on the East Coast.

Rep. Adam Smith had two staffers take trips worth $5,000. Rep. Rick Larsen had four staffers take two trips worth $13,000. Rep. Jay Inslee had four staffers take six trips worth $12,000. Murray took one trip to Mount Rushmore costing $1,800. A staffer took one trip worth $1,300 to Montana.

P-I reporter Daniel Lathrop can be reached at 206-448-8157 or daniellathrop@seattlepi.com.

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