POLS FINALLY BARE FREE TRIPS AFTER A DELAY

31 May 2005 // Rep. Peter King was among several dozen lawmakers who belatedly reported a slew of privately funded junkets in the weeks since House Majority Leader Tom DeLay came under fire for failing to disclose similar travel tabs, it was revealed yesterday.

King (R-L.I.) was among 43 House members and dozens of congressional aides who recently reported 198 previously undisclosed trips, an Associated Press survey has found.

Republican and Democratic House members were nearly equal violators in not disclosing their personal junkets within 30 days after the trip's completion.

Aides to Reps. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) and Steve Israel (D-L.I.) also took trips that were not reported until recently, according to the survey.

A flood of previously missed travel reports were filed beginning in March as lawmakers began combing through old records.

Three weeks ago, King reported a $1,200 two-day trip to Orlando, Fla., in June 2004 courtesy of the Law Enforcement Officers Association.

King said the initial failure to report the trip was an oversight.

"I was lucky to pick it up because I was filling out the personal disclosure forms and [an aide] told me I didn't have any trips, and I said, 'Wait a minute, I went to Florida,' " he said.

Rangel reported in March that an aide took a $1,900 four-day junket to Seattle in 2004, courtesy of Amgen, a biotechnology company.