U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, R-4th, and his wife enjoyed a five-day retreat on Lake Como in Bellagio, Italy, in April 2023.
In Vienna, U.S. Reps. Rudy Yakym, R-2nd, Erin Houchin, R-9th and former Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-8th, spent an evening at the Spanish Riding School with their spouses in November 2024.
During her 2022 trip to Israel, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-5th, and her husband stayed in the five-star David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem and spent an average of $485 per day on meals alone.
Indiana’s representatives saw little expense spared during international trips paid for with special interest groups’ money.
Members of Indiana’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation and their staffers have accepted roughly $640,000 in privately sponsored international travel since 2020, an Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism analysis of travel disclosures found.
Six current and former representatives took 26 international trips in those five years, according to congressional travel disclosures, and sent staff members on nine global getaways. Representatives and their staffers took over 138 domestic and international trips sponsored by private organizations for a total cost of over $760,000.
The Arnolt Center’s review of travel disclosures found:
- Baird traveled the most internationally among Indiana’s representatives, taking 10 trips in five years to Israel, United Kingdom, Kenya, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Colombia, Ireland, Spain and Italy, costing $201,133.
- Bucshon’s weeklong $35,000 trip to Japan in 2024, was the most expensive. Bucshon and his wife stayed at the Okura Tokyo, a five-star hotel, and ate at fine dining restaurants like NOBU Tokyo on the trip, according to travel disclosures.
- Spousal travel for Baird, Houchin, Spartz, Yakym, Bucshon and Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, accounted for more than $274,000 worth of privately sponsored travel.
- Rep. Andre Carson, D-7th and Rep. Jefferson Shreve, R-6th; plus former Reps. Jim Banks, R-3rd, and Jackie Walorski, R-2nd, did not travel internationally during the last five years, but sent staffers to Somaliland, Gambia, Mexico, Japan and Israel.
- Reps. Frank Mrvan, D-1st, and Mark Messmer, R-8th, did not take or send staffers on international trips.
A 2024 investigation by The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and Boston University found lobbyists use loopholes to fund international and domestic trips for representatives, their families and congressional staffers.
House rules prohibit representatives from knowingly accepting privately funded travel or gifts from registered lobbyists or foreign agents, but interest groups commonly create charitable nonprofit arms to continue sponsoring congressional travel.
Senators are subject to similar regulations for accepting gift travel, but the Senate Ethics Committee does not make the travel filings available.
This story was written by journalists at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University. Zoe Benson, tanka dhakal, Jon Eckert, Edith Morales, Ethan Roberts and Taylor Satoski are students with the Arnolt Center.
Don Fox, former acting director and general counsel of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said privately sponsored travel for representatives, especially to luxurious destinations with their spouses, is designed to buy access.
“(Sponsors) get access to lawmakers that you would not otherwise get if you had to schedule an appointment in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
He said that the interests of trip sponsors may impact future votes cast by the representatives.
“(If) you’re there as a lawmaker, sitting in a committee. It may be a lot harder to cast a vote that is against the wishes of somebody that’s just hosted you and your spouse at an all-inclusive resort than it is somebody with whom you’ve not developed any sort of relationship,” Fox said.
While lawmakers and their spouses enjoy comfortable accommodations on international trips, experts say these trips may still serve a key function for their official duties.
Michael Leppert, a former lobbyist and current professor at Indiana University, said congressional travel can offer unique insights into issues that only reading about them may not provide.
“Actually seeing the issue with your own eyes, touching with your own hands, actually has a big impact,” Leppert said. “Oftentimes, multiple sides of an issue will argue about the reality, and it’s always going to be better if the policymaker can see it and form their own opinion.”
Lawmakers meet with officials, sponsors get access
Zachary McGee, a political science professor at Kenyon College, said congressional travel started for the purpose of being a check on the executive branch. While the executive branch represents the country internationally, the legislative branch plays a crucial role in the country’s foreign relations.
“I do think there’s a legitimate reason for us as Americans to support our members of Congress gathering information on their own in the face of the executive branch no matter who’s in it,” McGee said. “Do they need to stay in the Four Seasons when they do it? No. But in my mind, those are separate questions.”
Discussions during the trips regularly focus on economic relations, national security and U.S. foreign policy by having meetings with government, business and cultural leaders, according to travel itineraries.
Spartz met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as diplomatic and economic representatives, and received a tour of the Al-Rayyan World Cup Stadium during her 2021 trip to Qatar. The United States Qatar Business Council paid nearly $13,000 for the transportation, food and five nights at the Four Seasons Doha.
“The Congresswoman periodically participates in official CODELs as part of her work in the House to address foreign policy and conduct oversight, which are part of her congressional duties and responsibilities to the people she represents,” Spartz’s office said in a written statement.
CODELs are congressional delegations that travel internationally and are funded by the government — not privately sponsored trips like Spartz’s trips to Qatar and Israel. Her office did not comment on privately sponsored travel.
No other representatives agreed to comment for this story.
Steve Dorsey, head of communications and public affairs at the International Committee of the Red Cross acknowledged, in a written statement, that the group organizes trips for staff members of representatives. The organization funded a 2023 trip to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia for Baird’s legislative director.
“They enable offices to gain a firsthand understanding of ICRC’s unique role as a neutral and independent humanitarian organization providing protection and assistance to vulnerable populations in conflict settings,” Dorsey said.
Travel disclosures listed 22 sponsor organizations, and only the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Rockefeller Foundation responded to a request for comment. The Rockefeller Foundation provides facilities during trips organized by the Aspen Institute.
While the purpose of these trips is expressly educational, Beth Rosenson, a political science professor at the University of Florida, said that parts of the excursions only seem loosely related to their stated purposes.
“I’m sure some learning goes on, but certainly they build in a lot of time to do things that are not primarily educational,” Rosenson said.
Craig Holman, a public-interest lobbyist at Public Citizen, said organizations want to peddle influence, so they send representatives on trips to nice places. He said providing travel is far more influential than a lobbyist showing up at the office.
“Privately sponsored travel is usually designed to try and influence the opinions of lawmakers,” Holman said. “It’s most effective when it can be done at a very pleasant resort under nice conditions with your spouse.”
Luxurious outings are ‘pure influence peddling’
Some international trips are not tailored exclusively to meetings with ambassadors or representatives.
In November 2024, the Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange and the Ripon Society hosted Houchin, Yakym, Bucshon, and their spouses in Vienna. Indiana representatives engaged in panels and roundtable discussions on U.S. foreign relations.
Representatives and their spouses also attended events loosely justified by the educational purpose of the trip. The second day of the Austria trip included a two-hour visit to the Spanish Riding School, where they watched a demonstration of the world-famous Lipizzaner horses in an 18th Century baroque palace.
State agencies spend $5 million on travel in 2024 fiscal year
“I see it as pure expense and pure influence peddling,” Leppert said. “And coming from someone who used to pedal influence, that’s clearly what some of these trips are.”
The Aspen Institute and Rockefeller Foundation sponsored a five-day trip to a Lake Como retreat in Bellagio, Italy for Baird and his wife in April of 2023. Travel disclosure documents referenced security as a key factor in choosing the location. On the trip, Baird met with executives of the organizations and attended a roundtable discussion that highlighted philanthropic efforts made by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Republican Main Street Partnership in 2024 paid $22,722 per representative for Houchin and Bucshon to travel to Florence and Rome, Italy. Attendees received 13 hours of privately guided tours, with stops at the Ferrari factory, the Colosseum and the Vatican, according to travel disclosures.
Seven hours of the trip were designated for official meetings and “stakeholder presentations,” according to travel disclosures.
Bucshon and his wife received more than $600 a day on food alone in Italy according to his travel disclosure.
The American Israel Education Foundation sponsored separate trips to Israel for Spartz, Baird and Yakym, which included stays at five-star hotels costing an average of $396 per night. The trips all included tours of the Western Wall, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Congressional delegates met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, as well as the director of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Baird and his wife stayed at two separate five-star hotels during an August 2024 trip to Ireland. Their stay at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin cost $449 per night and the Merchant Hotel in Belfast cost $315 per night, according to travel disclosures.
Little impact at home with representatives away
Indiana representatives rarely issued press releases or public statements explaining the benefit of the sponsored international trips. The Arnolt Center reviewed representatives’ websites looking for connections to international destinations for mentions of the countries they visited.
“Travel provides the members of Congress with the opportunity to get to know their constituents and vice versa,” Holman said. “When we talk about foreign travel, it usually doesn’t provide constituents with much benefit.”
One exception was Baird and Bucshon’s meetings with the Congressional Study Group on Japan’s Business Advisory Council with executives from Honda and Toyota. Both companies operate assembly plants in Indiana.
After Carson’s staff trip to Somaliland, he signed a letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the State Department to establish an embassy in the region as a part of his role on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Following Baird, Yakym and Spartz’s trips to Israel, the representatives all posted on social media about their continued support for an American-Israeli alliance. The three representatives have no references to any other international travel they took sponsored by private organizations, the Arnolt Center found.
Rosenson said representatives in competitive electoral districts tend to travel less to avoid electoral blowback.
“Constituents don’t think highly of this,” Rosenson said. “The average constituent thinks this is some trip that I’m not going to go on, this is bad news, this is unsavory. And that might be one reason they vote against the legislators.”
Expert: Reform efforts lacking
In 2007, Congress passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which Holman helped write, to restrict lobbying groups’ ability to fund congressional travel.
“We saw a radical decrease in privately sponsored travel after 2008, by about two-thirds,” Holman said. “They’ve increased in time, but they’re not at the level they used to be prior to 2008.”
The House Clerk’s Office is only required to publish travel data for the last six years.
The attempt at reform created a new loophole and allowed 501(c)(4) political action organizations to make charitable arms to continue paying for trips. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, for example, created a 501(c)(3) charity arm that allowed it to fund congressional travel while keeping lobbyists involved, which Holman called the “AIPAC loophole.”
Restrictions on privately funded travel still exist, but Holman said he expects congressional travel rules to weaken as special interest groups and Congress try to loosen them.
Holman said he’s concerned about Congress’ self-policing of travel rules and the lack of an independent body to oversee ethics concerns outside of the House Committee on Ethics.
“It’s up to watchdog groups to catch the abuses,” Holman said. “The Congressional Ethics Committee are members of Congress themselves overseeing their fellow colleagues. So, they are not great ethics cops.”
McGee said while there is significant oversight in the details of planned travel itineraries, there is no legitimate oversight about whether the itineraries are followed.
“We’ve got to figure out where to draw the line between allowing members of Congress to accept some travel and trying to eliminate the role of lobbyists and influence peddling out of these types of free trips,” Holman said. “It’s a difficult line to draw.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
