Shane Goldmacher
Dennis
Hastert and Dick Gephardt couldn't stand each other when they led
Congress a decade ago. But now they've moved to K Street, where the
flood of money tends to wash over such personal differences. These days,
they work hand in hand as two of Turkey's top lobbyists, with their
respective firms pocketing most of a $1.4 million annual lobbying
contract.
It's
widely believed that the 2007 rewrite of congressional travel rules
spurred by the scandal that sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison banned
such international dalliances. But that's far, far from true. A National Journal investigation
has found that despite efforts to clip the wings of congressional
travel planned and paid for by special interests, lawmakers are again
taking flight. Indeed, the reality is that lobbyists who can't legally
buy a lawmaker a sandwich can still escort members on trips all around
the world.
More than six years ago, reformers
pledged that tightened travel rules would end an era of globe-trotting
tied to special interests and, as incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it,
"break the link between lobbyists and legislators."
It
hasn't worked. Take it from Abramoff. "I just think they reshuffled the
deck," he said, having emerged from prison as a self-styled reformer.
"But it's the same deck. They're still playing the game."
Here's how it works.
The
2007 rules prevent a lobbyist for a corporate client from planning or
paying for a lawmaker's trip. But the same rules allow such a trip if
it's paid for by a foreign government. So while it does remain illegal
for, say, a Google lobbyist to plan and accompany a lawmaker on a free
trip abroad, if that same lobbyist does so on behalf of Turkey, it's
perfectly legal. And if that lobbyist happens to have both corporate and
foreign-government clients (as most do), they can still go abroad so
long as it's a country and not a company footing the bill.
And
that's only one of the loopholes the influence industry has exploited
to help lawmakers score free travel. Today, a wide network of
nonprofits—many with a clear agenda and some with excruciatingly tight
ties to Washington's biggest lobbying operations—are putting together
international congressional excursions. Some of these paper nonprofits
have no staff or space of their own; they simply share with a sister
organization that lobbies. Yet ethics officials in Congress have deemed
them to be independent enough. In one instance, a lobbyist literally
registered a new nonprofit—in his own office—that went on to pay for
congressional travel abroad.
Big
corporations bankroll some nonprofits, whose trips, in turn, can
feature stops at the businesses of their corporate funders. As a bonus,
the growing use of 501(c)(3) nonprofits, which occupy the same
charitable rung of the tax code as soup kitchens and the American Red
Cross, means that the wealthy and corporate donors underwriting
congressional travel can do so in secret and get a tax write-off along
the way.
So
it's little surprise that members of Congress have busily boarded
flights to far-flung destinations around the globe in recent years.
They've collectively flown hundreds of thousands of miles to dozens of
countries at a cost of millions of dollars. Lawmakers typically have
settled into roomy business-class seats, often next to a loved one, for
the long hauls ahead. Some headed to Ireland, where dinner at the
Guinness headquarters was on the agenda. Many, many more spun through
Israel. One openly gay lawmaker landed in Prague just in time to attend
the city's gay-pride parade.
The tabs for the nonprofit-backed trips ran as high as $25,000. The lawmakers, however, never had to handle the bill.
Backers
of the trips say they are saving U.S. taxpayers' dollars. And, of
course, all the private trips are supposed to be strictly educational
and fact-finding missions. But many itineraries include ample time to
relax, visit museums, tour national parks, and whiz through major
tourist attractions. The lawmakers are typically chauffeured from site
to site, with all meals paid for and evenings spent at top-notch hotels.
"Some
of the stuff we were involved in in the old days can't be done
directly," Abramoff said. "But any smart lobbyist can basically,
basically, if they want to play the game, they can get around any of
these rules."
He paused.
"Legally."
Turkey Exploits the Biggest Loophole
And so there was Dennis Hastert, who
presided as speaker in the Abramoff era, on the same flight to Istanbul
as members of Congress. Lobbyists had been intimately involved in the
months of planning for the trip, with dozens of back-and-forth emails,
phone calls, and meetings on Capitol Hill. As the trip neared, one
lobbyist at Hastert's firm, Laurie McKay, held conference calls and
emailed daily with the schedulers of the eight House members who
participated: Republicans Virginia Foxx, George Holding, Adam Kinzinger,
Todd Rokita, Lee Terry, and Ed Whitfield, and Democrats Sheila Jackson
Lee and Chellie Pingree. McKay even escorted three of them to Washington
Dulles International Airport and helped them check in with Turkish
Airlines.
Federal
records indicate that five lobbyists—Hastert, Gephardt, Robert Mangas,
Janice O'Connell, and an undisclosed lobbyist with the Caspian
Group—joined the congressional delegation at some point in Turkey. How
could this be? Didn't the 2007 rules ban lobbyists from such overseas
excursions?
It
turns out that the Turkey trip was sanctioned under a 1961 law, the
Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act, which allows foreign
governments to shuttle members of Congress and their staffs abroad if
the State Department has approved the destination nations for "cultural
exchange" trips. About 60 countries have such clearances. Despite the
2007 post-Abramoff travel law, lobbyists are still able to plan and
attend these MECEA journeys.
Of
all the loopholes that allow special interests a role in congressional
travel abroad, none is as shrouded in secrecy as this one. The trips
fall into a bureaucratic black hole. There is no centralized list of
lawmakers who participate. The itineraries and costs stay secret, unlike
privately sponsored trips. And lobbyist involvement never has to be
disclosed.
Neither
Congress nor the State Department claim to keep complete records, each
saying the burden falls on the other. "Nope, that's not something that
we have to do," State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman said of
collecting itineraries. The House Ethics Committee has said it has "no
jurisdiction." The Senate Ethics Committee pointed to the thin record of
existing public documents.
Jock Friedly, creator of the website Legi-Storm,
which tracks congressional travel and finances, filed a Freedom of
Information Act request with the State Department for more detailed
information several years ago. "I got bupkes," he said. "I got basically
nothing." No reply to a National Journal FOIA request came in time for publication.
It
is impossible to say yet how many such lobbyist-backed trips occurred
last year. None of the eight lawmakers who went to Turkey have disclosed
their trip yet—nor have they needed to. The trips are reported only on
annual financial forms, which won't be released until June, at the
earliest.
National Journal's
investigation uncovered the Turkey trip through a review of
foreign-government lobbying records maintained by the Justice Department
and filed by Gephardt Government Affairs, Dickstein Shapiro (Hastert's
firm), and the Caspian Group.
These foreign-sponsored trips are increasingly popular. NJ's
review found that at least 18 lawmakers went abroad this way in 2013,
including a 10-member delegation of the Congressional Black Caucus to
China. While the final figure will likely be higher, 18 already equals
the total number of lawmakers who went abroad on MECEA travel between
2006 and 2009, according to a Washington Post database of this type of travel published last year.
The
bonds that Gephardt and Hastert built in Turkey could prove invaluable
for all their paying clients, no matter who picked up the tab for the
trip. Gephardt's other clients include Google, General Electric, and
Goldman Sachs—and that's just the G's. Perhaps that's why federal
records show that lobbyists with Gephardt's and Hastert's firms
contacted about four dozen congressional offices in the first six months
of 2013 alone to dangle a free trip to Turkey.
Gephardt's firm declined comment for this story; Hastert's did not respond to inquiries.
The
two former congressional heavies certainly spent enough time with the
Turkey delegation to make an impression. "He had a farm, and we talked
about farming and [agriculture] issues," Pingree said of Hastert. "We
had a chance to bond."
Which,
for the lobbyists, is exactly the point. "Whenever you spend a few days
with somebody, unless you're not very good at your job, you're going to
bond with them, to create some ties with them that will likely last
beyond the trip," said Abramoff, whose trading of overseas junkets for
congressional favors landed him and former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, among
others, in prison. "That's why people do these."
Pingree
said that, at the time, she hadn't thought of her hosts' status as
registered lobbyists. "I can picture one of them calling me up and
saying, 'Hey, I met you on the trip,' " she said in a recent interview.
But, she quickly added, "I don't think, personally, it would make a
difference."
No other lawmaker returned calls about the trip.
Israel's Puppet Nonprofits
More than 50 House freshmen boarded free flights to Tel Aviv last August. It was no accident that the greenest lawmakers made up most of the outbound delegations. Supporters of Israel had begun wooing the newly elected to come abroad before they even arrived on Capitol Hill.
More than 50 House freshmen boarded free flights to Tel Aviv last August. It was no accident that the greenest lawmakers made up most of the outbound delegations. Supporters of Israel had begun wooing the newly elected to come abroad before they even arrived on Capitol Hill.
The invitations for the all-expenses-paid trip were extended not just to
the lawmakers but to a loved one as well. So the youngest member of
Congress, 30-year-old Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, brought along his
dad. Rep. Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat who celebrated his 55th
birthday on the trip, invited his college-age son. Most lawmakers were
joined by a spouse. South Carolina's Mark Sanford, who returned to the
House in 2013 after an extramarital affair led to scandal during his
term as governor, received a special ethics waiver to take along his
mistress-turned-fiancée.
Israel
is, by far, lawmakers' most popular overseas destination, and these
freshmen's journeys were orchestrated by the biggest player in privately
sponsored international travel: the American Israel Education
Foundation. It has spent more than $6 million on congressional trips to
Israel in the past five years, more than any other entity, according to
records compiled by LegiStorm.
And
the foundation hardly lacks an agenda. It shares staff, money, and an
address with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful
pro-Israel group that employs a dozen lobbyists and spends more than $2
million annually on lobbying.
As
a lobbying organization, AIPAC itself isn't allowed to plan and pay for
congressional excursions abroad. Yet its shadow foundation has received
the blessing of congressional ethics enforcers despite the fact that
its 2011 tax filings spell out:
"The foundation does not have any employees. The foundation utilizes
AIPAC employees." AIPAC even pays the $464,000 salary of Richard
Fishman, the foundation's executive director—the man who signs the
congressional travel forms.
"Everyone
understood it to be an AIPAC trip," said a freshman representative who
joined last August's excursion and was granted anonymity to speak
candidly.
There
were two congressional delegations last summer, one for Republicans,
led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and another headlined by House
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer for Democrats. Business was certainly
undertaken: The trips included meetings with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. In between, the lawmakers
and their family members were well fed, with a daily food budget of
$129. One meal was at Decks, a restaurant perched above the Sea of
Galilee. It was in that sea, two years earlier, that Republican Rep.
Kevin Yoder stripped naked and jumped in, creating a ripple of headlines
and headaches back home.
Marshall
Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesman, declined to answer specific questions
about the trips. He said in an email that they were "among the most
substantive, educational, rigorous, and valuable opportunities for
members of Congress" and that the foundation complies with all ethics
and IRS rules.
The
AIPAC foundation is not alone in this practice. It is just the largest
of numerous nonprofits with agonizingly close affiliations to lobbying
interests. It's a model that has been so successful that the nonprofit
arm of J Street, a counterweight in the Jewish lobbying community that
advocates for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, began
putting together trips of its own. They are organized through a
similarly connected foundation, the J Street Education Fund, a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit, which took four lawmakers to Israel last year.
A
third nonprofit that pays for trips to Israel, the U.S. Israel
Education Association, was founded by Christian activist Heather
Johnston and sponsored congressional delegations in 2011 and 2013. The
November 2013 trip that sent seven members of Congress and family
members to Israel cost about $175,000. Both times, lawmakers were
accompanied by Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research
Council, one of Washington's leading lobbies for conservative religious
values.
The
Family Research Council is not permitted to sponsor congressional
travel because it employs lobbyists. And while Perkins's name and his
organization appear nowhere on the travel forms that lawmakers submitted
for approval to the House Ethics Committee, he has presented the trips
almost as a joint venture.
"You have these relationships with the Israeli leaders," Perkins said to Johnston in a December podcast posted at TonyPerkins.com,
"and here at FRC we have relationships with members of Congress and so
we kind of put the two together and now we've twice now taken
conservative members of Congress over to Israel."
Neither Perkins nor anyone for the U.S. Israel Education Association was available for comment.
Israel
is not the only country to benefit from the efforts of advocacy groups.
A long list of nonprofits supportive of Turkey have paid for
congressional travel there. "We really don't have an agenda in trying to
brainwash, or trying to convince people on a certain issue," said
Lincoln McCurdy, president of the Turkish Coalition of America, which
has sponsored trips. "We feel like we're doing a great service." Besides
running the nonprofit, McCurdy dishes out campaign cash to pro-Turkey
politicians as treasurer of a political action committee. "I wear two
hats," he said.
Another
nonprofit intertwined with a lobbying entity is the Human Rights
Campaign Foundation, which paid $2,600 to send Democrat David Cicilline
to the Czech Republic for Prague Pride week last August.
The
foundation contracts staff from, and shares office space with, its
sister organization, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest
gay-rights group, which spent more than $1 million on lobbying last
year. Michael Cole-Schwartz, a spokesman for both, said the groups are
"intermingled" but that the trip fell within the foundation's mission
and was planned by staff members who work only on foundation projects.
Records show that one of Cicilline's companions on the trip, Ty Cobb,
had deregistered as an HRC lobbyist only months earlier.
Cicilline
is one of a handful of openly gay lawmakers in Congress, and Peter
Karafotas, his chief of staff, said the congressman doesn't need to be
lobbied on gay-rights issues. But could the foundation's free trip be
perceived as a thank-you to Cicilline for his staunch support? "I
suppose so," Karafotas said.
In
another instance, a federal lobbyist actually incorporated a new
nonprofit that then financed congressional travel. Lobbyist William
Nixon created the Bahrain American Council in the K Street offices of
his lobbying firm, as ProPublica has reported.
Nixon and two other officials with Policy Impact Communications made
up the group's original board of directors but soon turned over control
to others.
The
Bahrain American Council then paid nearly $21,000 to fly Burton and his
wife to Bahrain in 2012. The investment paid off almost immediately.
Burton returned to Congress to deliver a speech hailing Bahrain as "one
of our most important allies" in the Gulf region. And he suggested the
antigovernment protesters there, who had been violently squelched, might
"have been infiltrated by outside radical elements supported by Iran."
Nixon
posted the speech to his Facebook page, calling it "insightful." The
Bahrain American Council shared his post and called Burton's speech a
"GREAT address on the floor."
Nixon
said his lobbying shop has nothing to do with Bahrain and that he
created the council as a paperwork-filing favor for a friend. "I helped
him incubate it, is probably the best way of putting it," Nixon said.
With
so many private sponsors that have a political agenda funding
congressional travel, it is little surprise the number of trips
lawmakers are taking has been growing, with nonprofits spending $5.8
million in 2013 to shuttle lawmakers and their staffers on 1,856 trips
around the country and across the globe, according to LegiStorm. That's the highest number since 2006, when the Abramoff scandal was in full swing.
"The National Journal," January 10, 2014
(Fragments)
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