Interest groups are making up for lost time, spending on private congressional travel at the highest election-year rate since 2014.
Private groups have already spent more than $1.9 million to court members and staff so far this year, according to LegiStorm data. By this time in 2018 and 2016, they'd spent a respective $1.7 million and $1.8 million on private travel.
That makes this the highest election-year spending since 2014, when sponsors had dropped almost $2.7 million by this point in the year. Privately sponsored travel is typically much lower in election years.
Congressional travel halted as the pandemic hit in March 2020 and began to rebound in 2021.
The American Israel Education Foundation, a perennial top spender on such trips, has particularly compensated for any influence it may have lost during the pandemic's early years. A sister organization to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group, AIEF spent more than $1.2 million on 45 representatives and seven staffers in February - almost two-thirds of all money spent on private trips this year.
The interest group spent an average of more than $24,000 per member and $14,000 per staffer to fly the group to Tel Aviv, Israel, where they each stayed for five to eight days and attended an educational seminar on U.S.-Israel relations and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Representatives in attendance included House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Other sponsors are taking a similar approach, opting to send members and staff on a smaller number of more expensive trips compared to years past. In addition to the AIEF travel, Congress has accepted 391 trips at an average cost of $1,800. At this point in 2018, sponsors averaged $1,400 each across 1,203 trips.
