New study finds $50 million in trips given to lawmakers

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Members of Congress, their spouses and staffers have accepted nearly $50 million in travel paid for during the last five years by corporations, trade groups and nonprofits, according to a report released Monday.

While much of the travel was for legitimate congressional business, the study found that many trips were to vacation destinations such as Hawaii, Paris and Las Vegas, and included $500-a-night hotel rooms, rides on corporate jets, spa treatments and golf excursions.

The report found that at least 90 trips, with a value estimated at $145,000, were sponsored or co-sponsored by lobbyists, an apparent violation of ethics rules that ban lobbyists from paying for congressional travel.

Earlier this year, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., proposed banning all privately funded travel, saying the system had been abused after several top lawmakers took expensive golfing trips to Scotland paid for by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients.

But Hastert and other GOP leaders have backed off the idea, settling instead for a provision in the recently passed lobbying reform bill that would suspend all privately funded trips through the end of the year.

Free travel for Congress is just another name for a bribe.