McDermott defends staff, family journeys

WASHINGTON — Over the past five years, Seattle Rep. Jim McDermott has traveled to about a dozen countries and all over the United States, with private interests including think tanks, political-advocacy groups, universities and foreign-trade associations picking up the nearly $150,000 tab.

The total cost of McDermott's trips puts him in the top 20 Capitol Hill travelers, according to an analysis of privately sponsored trips taken by members of Congress and their staffs from Jan. 1, 2000, through June 30, 2005, compiled by Medill News Service, the Center for Public Integrity and American Public Media.

When McDermott staffers' trips are included, the totals rise to nearly 100 trips worth at least $280,000. That ranks his office No. 1 in privately funded travel among Washington's congressional delegation.

In all, the state's congressional lawmakers and their staffs accepted at least 460 trips that cost private sponsors more than $1 million. Nationally, the average congressional office took trips totaling $70,000 during the 5 ½ years, the analysis of official travel reports shows.

McDermott said his extensive travel helps him become better informed about such issues as trade with India, human rights and AIDS in Africa.

"Why would you not want your congressman to know more about foreign countries than you read in the newspaper?" McDermott said.

"This is one of those things that has been turned into a perk and has become somehow bad, but in my view the Congress is served well by trips that make sense," he said. "Now, if you want to take golf trips, I've got no time for that, to support or defend that."

McDermott spent more than a month in India, with the country's main trade group, the Confederation of Indian Industry, picking up the $29,000 tab for two trips that also included his wife, Therese Hansen. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry picked up a $10,000 tab for another trip where he was accompanied by a son, James C. McDermott.

"When you live a public life like we do and you spend so much time away from your family, when you have an opportunity to go somewhere and bring a family member, you take it," he said.

To get a first-hand look at the AIDS crisis in some of the world's hardest-hit nations, McDermott traveled to Haiti, with Harvard University's medical school footing the $1,500 bill; he also went to several African countries, with FK Consulting paying the $10,000 tab.

He made privately sponsored trips to the Middle East and Iraq, China, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, Lichtenstein and London, as well as more than two dozen domestic sites during the period studied.

The nine-term Seattle lawmaker, a doctor, co-chairs both the Congressional Task Force on HIV/AIDS and the Congressional Africa Trade and Investment Caucus.

Among the Washington delegation, the offices of former Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue, took the second-highest number of trips, more than 50, costing at least $130,000, while Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and his aides have taken about four dozen private trips costing about $110,000.

Rep. Norm Dicks ranked second among individual travelers in the Washington delegation, taking trips worth more than $70,000, including the delegation's second most expensive one. His wife, Suzanne, accompanied him on a 10-day, $17,382 trip to China in March 2005, sponsored by the Aspen Institute, a global-policy think tank.

Dicks focuses on trips that allow him to learn more about national-security and defense issues, spokesman George Behan said. The lawmaker may have combined his trip to China with a visit to some clients of Washington-based businesses, Behan said.

McDermott said his trips are ultimately beneficial to his trade-dependent district, which includes the Port of Seattle, one of the nation's largest ports. He also makes personal contacts that help open foreign markets to Washington state companies like Boeing and Starbucks, he said, adding most of the time is "related to my duties as a member of Congress."

"We do fly in first class and we certainly don't camp out in the city park," he said.

If the Republican-controlled Congress were willing to make more official, taxpayer-financed trips available to Democrats, he said, such travel costs could be reduced.