Congressional travel adds up to $50 million

An analysis of more than 25,000 travel disclosure documents over a 5½-year period by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service found that "members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips — valued at almost $50 million — financed by private sponsors, many of them corporations, trade associations and nonprofit groups with business on Capitol Hill." While some of these trips no doubt were educational, others appeared to be thinly veiled attempts by special interests to influence lawmakers and their advisers.
Also see Top Gun of Travel and Rangel Trip Raises Ethics Questions.