DeLay has inspired Congress to report trips

At least 198 were recently disclosed

1 Jun 2005 // At least 43 House members and dozens of aides failed to publicly report travel financed by special interests until Majority Leader Tom DeLay's trips were scrutinized, an Associated Press review shows.

Despite a rule requiring public disclosure within 30 days of a trip's conclusion, the AP found at least 198 recently filed travel reports that were as much as eight years late.

The review covered pre-2005 trips that were disclosed since early March, when news articles questioned whether a lobbyist paid for some of DeLay's travel. A House rule prohibits lawmakers from accepting travel expenses from lobbyists.

Most of the previously undisclosed trips occurred in 2004, but some dated back to the late 1990s. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, recently disclosed 12 trips, the oldest dating back to 1997.

Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for Hoyer, said the office searched the files after the travel issue was raised initially by "Republicans doing opposition research to deflect from their own ethical issues."

Republican and Democratic House members were nearly equal rules violators in failing to disclose their personal trips within 30 days of the trip's completion. There were 23 GOP members, 19 Democrats and one independent, all of them months or years late in their reporting to the House public records office.

The volume of unreported trips surprised the former chairman of the House ethics committee, Rep. Joel Hefley, a Republican from Colorado.

"I didn't realize the extent of the problem," Hefley said in an interview. "There is no particular sanction (for tardiness) if you come back and file. They get lax. They don't think about it. People will be more aware now. The ethics committee will be more aware that it's a problem."