Members of Congress travel the globe, with interest groups picking up the bills

WASHINGTON — One congressman took a trip with his mother to Botswana, in southern Africa, a journey that typically features helicopter hops to remote reserves. Two other lawmakers traveled with their spouses on jaunts to Switzerland, Austria and Israel. A fourth accepted a hotel room and meals in New York City for a policy retreat.

Long Island’s four U.S. House members and their staffers since January 2024 have taken more than $270,000 worth of free airline tickets, hotel rooms and meals from private organizations, congressional records show. Sometimes they took a family member along, also all-expenses paid.

Required filings by the representatives and the trip sponsors list the official purposes for the trips as meeting with politicians; attending various conferences; serving on panels; visiting important security, environmental and other sites; or other fact-finding activities.

But critics said the privately funded travel — not directly costing taxpayers — allows lobbying groups, think tanks and foundations to buy special access, if not influence. This travel is on top of congressional committee or other official House delegation trips.

"Lobbyists and wealthy special interest groups fully understand that providing free travel and accommodations for lawmakers and their spouses is a very effective influence-peddling tool for achieving favored legislative policies and winning government contracts," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonpartisan group that emphasizes government accountability.

In all, the Long Island members of Congress reported taking at least 13 free trips themselves since the start of 2024, and having authorized their staffs to take 30 others. Destinations for the members included Rome, Athens, Vienna, Geneva, London, Lisbon and Brazil. Other trips landed them in Ukraine, Botswana, Tel Aviv and Sea Island, Georgia.

Groups funding this free travel include special interests or think tanks such as the American Israel Education Foundation, Microsoft Corp., Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange, Ripon Institute, Republican Main Street Partnership and the International Conservation Caucus Foundation.

The travel documents filed with the House Committee on Ethics also reflect that two of the lawmakers took along their spouses on privately funded excursions abroad, and another traveled with his mother on one such an expense-paid trip, her costs also fully paid.

Asked why Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) took his mother on that April 2024 trip to Botswana, a spokeswoman for the congressman said they’d planned to travel together on a trip the year before, but that his mother had to cancel because of an illness.

"Given how little time he gets to spend with his family because of the demands of the job, it was nice to have her accompany him while he was traveling for work," the spokeswoman, Annie McCarthy, said in an email.

Neither Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) nor freshman Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) have authorized any privately funded travel for their staffers since January 2024 — Gillen having not arrived in Congress until January 2025.

But Gillen did take her husband on the one privately funded excursion she took to Israel. And Suozzi included his wife on two of his free trips abroad, to Geneva and Vienna. Neither office immediately provided answers as to why they took their spouses, which filings show had their travel, lodging and meal costs also fully paid by the trip sponsors.

Common practice

Since January 2024, Democrats and Republicans in the 435-seat U.S. House have taken about 3,300 such privately funded trips, totaling over $19.9 million in globe-trotting costs they did not have to pay, according to LegiStorm, a nonpartisan website and research organization that posts and sorts the filings.

Garbarino is by far the most active privately funded traveler among the four Long Island House members. He has taken seven trips on the private dime since January 2024 — and also has authorized his staffers to take about two dozen other such paid-for jaunts. In fact, he is individually one of the House’s top approvers of such free travel for his aides, according to aggregated rankings by LegiStorm.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) — who’s limited himself to one privately funded trip to New York City — authorized another six trips for his aides since January 2024. The staffer trips for his and Garbarino's aides have been to such foreign and domestic destinations as Helsinki; Mexico City; Nairobi; Vancouver; Tel Aviv; Las Vegas; Charleston, South Carolina; and Redmond, Washington.

Privately funded travel is one of the last perks on Capitol Hill, a throwback to a time when lawmakers could accept gifts from lobbyists, give speeches for money and even float unsecured checks in a House bank.

Under an ethics law, members of Congress and their staffs must obtain Ethics Committee approval and file reports listing all privately funded trips, who paid for them, the purpose, and how much the group spent on transportation, lodging and meals.

Garbarino, whose seven privately funded trips since January 2024 add up to more than $73,000, has traveled to destinations that include London, Athens, Rome, Florence, Lisbon and Botswana.

The Botswana trip, on which Garbarino was accompanied by his mother, is listed as totaling more than $17,000, a tab picked up by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation. Officials of that group did not respond to requests for comment.

The ICCF’s filings state the trip was to educate lawmakers about the role that conservation and natural resource management play in poverty alleviation, economic development and regional security for Botswana. The filing also notes that Botswana contains the Okavango Delta — a UNESCO heritage site and pristine expanse, home to thousands of species, including the world's largest elephant population.

The trip involves visits to remote locations, the filing states, adding: "Flight charter and helicopter transportation provide safe and timely travel between these sites as ground transportation is fairly unreliable/unpredictable."

Garbarino disagreed that such privately funded travel is an influence-peddling tool, according to his office, and underscores that every aspect of such travel must be reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee.

His office also responded that such trips "are not perks or favors; they are tightly regulated, non-political opportunities with partners abroad on issues directly before Congress," adding, "the locations are driven by the policy issues at hand, not leisure."

As for Garbarino’s having authorized more than 20 other privately funded trips for his staffers, his office said those, too, serve to deepen expertise by his team on global challenges, and "ultimately strengthens the office’s ability to serve Long Islanders and safeguard America’s interests."

'Fact-finding' work

Along with trips to Vienna and Geneva, Suozzi also took a trip to Ukraine after an initial stop in Warsaw, totaling $10,262 on the dime of the Center for Strategic and International Study. He’s rung up $53,371 in privately funded travel costs since January 2024.

"For me these trips are about fact-finding, learning, and building bipartisan relationships," Suozzi said in a statement.

"Whether it was traveling to Ukraine, when rockets were fired while I was in Odesa and Kyiv, or speaking on, or learning from colleagues or experts on panels about tax policy or immigration reform in Georgia or Europe, each trip was educational and productive," Suozzi said.

LaLota’s office underscored that he has, individually, taken just a lone April 2024 multiday trip to nearby New York City. That stay for a policy retreat complete with hotel room and meals — during which the congressman took part in policy discussions on artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other topics — was paid for by the Governing Majority Education Fund at a cost of $1,273.

LaLota’s office said he supports policy-focused, fact-finding trips that comply with strict House ethics rules because they help him and his staff better understand complex issues.

Gillen, in a statement, described her lone trip to Tel Aviv, sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, as important. She and other lawmakers met with government and military leaders, including the prime minister, during the trip, which reached a total of $30,796 for herself and her husband. The AIEF is the top sponsor of such congressional travel so far in 2025.

"As the Representative for one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the United States, it was important for me to travel to Israel with a bipartisan Congressional delegation, particularly at such a critical time," Gillen said in a statement. "I wanted to see what efforts were underway to bring the hostages home, witness firsthand the devastation of Oct. 7, [2023,] increase humanitarian aid to Gaza and discuss the pathways to broker peace in the region."

Still, critics question whether these lobbying groups, think tanks and foundations are obtaining — if not outright buying — special access and possible added influence.

"The fact that these jaunts are almost always to popular vacation destinations bears witness that they are indeed all-expense-paid vacations more than educational trips," Public Citizen’s Holman said.