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CHAMBLISS OFFICE TOPS IN TRAVEL

By Rebecca Carr | Tuesday, October 10, 2006, 12:13 PM

The corruption scandal that engulfed Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his friends in high places has prompted renewed scrutiny of congressional travel paid for by private interest groups.

The Center for Responsive Politics launched a new database Tuesday on its Website (www.opensecrets.org) that lists congressional travel from July of 2005 to August 21 of this year. Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss and his staff took more trips than any other lawmaker’s office.

Chambliss, the powerful chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and/or his staff took 53 trips during that time frame at a cost of $84,431. That makes Chambliss’ office first among lawmakers in terms of number of congressional trips taken and second, behind Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, in terms of cost, according to the data amassed by the center.

 "By providing these trips, corporations, trade associations, labor unions and other private interests get politicians on their turf, to see and hear their side of an issue-and their side only. The average citizen isn't invited to ride along in the golf cart," Sheila Krumholz, acting director of the nonpartisan center.

Krumholz said Chambliss aides “repeatedly neglected” to fill in the line on the travel disclosure form indicating where he and his aides actually went.

Krister Holladay, Chambliss' chief of staff, said his staff had consistently filled the travel disclosure forms out correctly.

Holladay defended the trips as necessary fact-finding missions to learn more about the state of agriculture and the impact that Washington regulations have on local businesses and farms.

Most of the trips were taken by Chambliss’ staff or where the senator was invited to speak at a conference, Holladay said. The trips included a visit to Minnesota in January hear concerns of the Minnesota Corn Growers. “It’s hardly Bermuda,” he said. The trips in Chambliss’ case were not about luxury, but about finding out the needs of groups like the Dairy Farmers of America or rural healthcare in Georgia.

” I think it (the database) leaves a false perception about what the staff is doing,” said Holladay, who estimates that the senator has more than 70 employees between the Agriculture Committee, his personal staff in Washington and his staff in Georgia.

The senator prefers his staff to get out of the office to see how programs work, Holladay said. He wants staffers to understand the issues, not just read about them. He wants them to be able to provide real and meaningful answers, not just Washington lingo, Holladay said.

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