QUOTE
Sen. Bayh ranks 4th in privately paid trips
By Maureen Groppe
Star Washington Bureau
November 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has racked up one of the largest tabs in Congress for privately paid travel during the past 5½ years.
Outside interests have paid $169,227 to send Bayh, and sometimes his wife, around the world since 2000 -- the fourth-highest amount in Congress, according to a database of travel reports compiled by politicalmoneyline.com, an independent Web site that tracks congressional travel, campaign spending and lobbying.
Sen. Richard Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ranks 14th.
The next-highest ranked Indiana lawmaker, Rep. Mark Souder, comes in at 153 out of 637 lawmakers who took at least one privately paid trip since 2000.
The database does not include trips taken by lawmakers' aides and does not go back to 1996, the first year lawmakers and their staffers had to disclose privately paid travel within 30 days of returning from the trip.
Bayh reported a total of 44 privately paid trips since 2000. Twelve foreign trips accounted for more than 60 percent of the private money spent for Bayh's travel.
Trips to China cost $40,524
The Mansfield Center for Public Affairs, a public policy group in Washington, sent Bayh and his wife, Susan, to China in 2000, 2001 and 2002 for a combined cost of $40,524.
Bayh's positions on China have been mixed. He voted with most senators in 2000 to make permanent China's standing as a normal U.S. trading partner. But recently, Bayh has been among the members of Congress complaining that the United States hasn't done enough to combat unfair trade practices in China, such as an undervalued currency and violations of patents and copyrights.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry sent the Bayhs on a tour of India last year that cost $17,692, the second-most-expensive trip taken by anyone in Indiana's congressional delegation for the past decade.
"Senator Bayh traveled to India for the same reasons he traveled to China, because it is a growing presence in the global market whose impact on Indiana and America will only continue to increase over the coming years," Bayh spokeswoman Meg Keck said.
Keck said the India trip included visits to several high-tech economic and business centers.
Bayh's father, former Sen. Birch Bayh D-Ind., is a Washington lobbyist and was recently hired by India to help work out a nuclear technology agreement between the two countries. Congress has to OK the deal that would provide the technology India needs to build nuclear power plants.
Keck said Bayh's trip to India was not related to his father's lobbying work.
More than one-third of Bayh's trips since 2000 have been paid for by the Democratic Leadership Council, the moderate Democratic group that Bayh headed from 2001 through July of this year. Bayh traveled to various meetings the group held across the country.
Majority of trips to conferences
Twenty-one of the 33 privately paid trips Lugar took since 2000 were to Aspen Institute conferences on such topics as U.S. policy in Latin America, relations with Russia, and "political Islam." Former Sen. Dick Clark of Iowa started the conferences to give lawmakers more expertise in foreign affairs.
The Aspen Institute spent more than any other private group on congressional travel since 2000, according to politicalmoneyline.com.
Lugar's spokesman said the conferences have helped the senator develop legislation, including an effort to expand the program he helped create to secure or destroy weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union.
By Maureen Groppe
Star Washington Bureau
November 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has racked up one of the largest tabs in Congress for privately paid travel during the past 5½ years.
Outside interests have paid $169,227 to send Bayh, and sometimes his wife, around the world since 2000 -- the fourth-highest amount in Congress, according to a database of travel reports compiled by politicalmoneyline.com, an independent Web site that tracks congressional travel, campaign spending and lobbying.
Sen. Richard Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ranks 14th.
The next-highest ranked Indiana lawmaker, Rep. Mark Souder, comes in at 153 out of 637 lawmakers who took at least one privately paid trip since 2000.
The database does not include trips taken by lawmakers' aides and does not go back to 1996, the first year lawmakers and their staffers had to disclose privately paid travel within 30 days of returning from the trip.
Bayh reported a total of 44 privately paid trips since 2000. Twelve foreign trips accounted for more than 60 percent of the private money spent for Bayh's travel.
Trips to China cost $40,524
The Mansfield Center for Public Affairs, a public policy group in Washington, sent Bayh and his wife, Susan, to China in 2000, 2001 and 2002 for a combined cost of $40,524.
Bayh's positions on China have been mixed. He voted with most senators in 2000 to make permanent China's standing as a normal U.S. trading partner. But recently, Bayh has been among the members of Congress complaining that the United States hasn't done enough to combat unfair trade practices in China, such as an undervalued currency and violations of patents and copyrights.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry sent the Bayhs on a tour of India last year that cost $17,692, the second-most-expensive trip taken by anyone in Indiana's congressional delegation for the past decade.
"Senator Bayh traveled to India for the same reasons he traveled to China, because it is a growing presence in the global market whose impact on Indiana and America will only continue to increase over the coming years," Bayh spokeswoman Meg Keck said.
Keck said the India trip included visits to several high-tech economic and business centers.
Bayh's father, former Sen. Birch Bayh D-Ind., is a Washington lobbyist and was recently hired by India to help work out a nuclear technology agreement between the two countries. Congress has to OK the deal that would provide the technology India needs to build nuclear power plants.
Keck said Bayh's trip to India was not related to his father's lobbying work.
More than one-third of Bayh's trips since 2000 have been paid for by the Democratic Leadership Council, the moderate Democratic group that Bayh headed from 2001 through July of this year. Bayh traveled to various meetings the group held across the country.
Majority of trips to conferences
Twenty-one of the 33 privately paid trips Lugar took since 2000 were to Aspen Institute conferences on such topics as U.S. policy in Latin America, relations with Russia, and "political Islam." Former Sen. Dick Clark of Iowa started the conferences to give lawmakers more expertise in foreign affairs.
The Aspen Institute spent more than any other private group on congressional travel since 2000, according to politicalmoneyline.com.
Lugar's spokesman said the conferences have helped the senator develop legislation, including an effort to expand the program he helped create to secure or destroy weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union.
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