A picture-perfect day visiting Virginia’s rolling countryside: a 5-star spa, horse riding, treetop zip-lining, a renowned winery. For a young congressional staffer drawing a starter salary in the expensive city of Washington D.C., the getaway might be a memorable one—paid for by lobbyists who may soon be calling to set up a meeting.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and their staff are prohibited from accepting gifts worth more than $50 from lobbyists, but each year lobbying groups and nonprofits funded by corporate trade associations pay for representatives and staff to take thousands of trips, where they are wined and dined, and often put up at luxurious resorts.
Sludge analyzed gift travel disclosures filed with the House Ethics Committee during the 2023-24 session of Congress and found that of the nearly 4,000 trips that were disclosed, the most frequent sponsors are nonprofits that are led by corporate lobbyists and funded by lobbying organizations.
In describing the reason for banning lobbying gifts, the House Ethics Committee website says, “the public has a right to expect that [members of Congress and their staff] are impartial in performing your official duties and are not influenced by gifts or favors.” However, the ethics guidelines allow members to accept gifts of privately-sponsored, officially-connected travel, as long as they provide written justification of why the trip is related to their public duties and get pre-approval from the Ethics Committee. The guidelines say that such trips must be for 7 days or less, and it places additional time limits on trips that are funded by lobbying groups.
The most frequent congressional travel sponsor was the Congressional Institute, a nonprofit that says it is “dedicated to helping members of Congress better serve their constituents and helping their constituents better understand the operations of the national legislature.” The Congressional Institute financed 646 trips this session of Congress to conferences it held in Virginia Beach, Hot Springs, Virginia, and Cambridge, Maryland.
At the Congressional Institute events, staffers attended sessions led by corporate consultants and lobbyists. For example, Ben Howard, a partner with lobbying firm the Duberstein Group, was featured by the Institute on a Feb. 8 panel focused on how to deal with the administration during a divided government. Duberstein lobbies the government for more than two dozen clients, including Amazon, Pfizer, and Northrop Grumman. That same day, attendees of the Congressional Institute trip also heard from representatives for Microsoft, Google, Meta, the American Investment Council, and lobbying giant Squire Patton Boggs.
The Congressional Institute’s board of directors is made up of corporate figures such as JPMorgan Chase Global Head of Corporate Responsibility and Chairman Tim Berry and Anne Bradbury, the CEO of oil and gas group American Exploration and Production Council. It does not disclose its funding sources, but according to tax filings and lobbying contribution disclosures, its funders include trade groups such as the Business Roundtable, Edison Electric Institute, and Biotechnology Innovation Organization, as well as companies including Southwest Airlines, Pacific Gas & Electric, and DaVita Healthcare Partners.
The second-most frequent congressional travel sponsor this session has been the centrist think tank Center Forward, whose trips for moderate Democratic and Republican staffers are often highly luxurious. The group finances international trips and brought dozens of staffers to Mexico and Portugal this year. One of its most frequent destinations, however, is close to D.C., at the opulent Salamander Resort in the elite town of Middleburgh, Virginia, known for its foxhunting and steeplechases.
Center Forward, which has its roots in the Blue Dog Coalition of House Democrats, is led by corporate lobbyists such as board member Jeff Murray, whose lobbying clients include Northrop Grumman, Visa, and Wells Fargo. The organization relies heavily on annual funding support from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers (PhRMA), which has given it at least $9.4 million from 2016-2023, according to a Sludge review of tax information. Center Forward also receives its funding from lobbying groups including the Bank Policy Institute and Consumer Brands Association, and it has an affiliated super PAC that receives funding from the oil industry.
Another major congressional trip sponsor is the American Israel Education Foundation, the charitable arm of pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The group paid for 173 trips during this session of Congress for House members and staff to fly to visit Israel and Rwanda. The trips, which frequently include congressional spouses as well, often cost the group more than $20,000 per attendee, according to the disclosures. Meetings are held with officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the Knesset, and travelers are often hosted at the 5-star King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
The American Israel Education Foundation’s parent group AIPAC was one of the largest and most influential campaign funders during the 2024 elections, giving money to hundreds of members of Congress, and spending millions through its super PAC to successfully oust critics of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The group is also a major lobbyist, spending millions each year to push Congress on approving military aid for Israel, opposing the Israeli boycott movement, sanctioning its rivals in the Middle East, and amending U.S. law to endorse a definition of antisemitism that includes “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Companies also directly sponsor congressional travel, such as when pipeline company Equitrans last year flew staffers to Virginia to the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline project to tour the construction progress and water crossings. The trip was held just days after the pipeline failed hydrostatic testing when a segment burst and began spilling testing fluid into surrounding wetlands. Other companies that sponsored congressional travel this session include Microsoft, seed company Beck’s Hybrids, Growmark, Marathon Oil, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Overall, federal lobbying spending has risen steadily since 2015, reaching a nominal high $4.2 billion in 2023, according to OpenSecrets.
Foreign destinations that private groups flew members and their staff to visit included Japan, Ireland, Austria, Kenya, France, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and Norway.
