Microsoft's travel tab: $390,000 in 5½ years

WASHINGTON — In 2002, approaching a final deal with the Justice Department in its antitrust case, Microsoft flew one of Virginia Sen. John Warner's staffers to Seattle. During the two-day tour of Microsoft's campus, Chris DeLacy was briefed on the case.

DeLacy's visit came one month before Microsoft and the federal government announced a settlement in the antitrust case that had dogged the company for more than a decade.

The trip was one of nearly 200 congressional trips Microsoft paid for between Jan. 1, 2000, through June 30, 2005, according to an analysis of congressional travel documents compiled by Medill News Service, American Public Media and the Center for Public Integrity.

In all, the company spent about $390,000 on congressional travel during the period, ranking it among the nation's top corporate sponsors for such trips. Most of the travel brought lawmakers and staff members to its Redmond campus to preview new products or discuss the policy implications of products under development, said Microsoft spokeswoman Ginny Terzano.

By comparison, SBC Communications spent about $205,000, Northrop Grumman spent about $12,000 on congressional junkets and Boeing spent about $13,000.

Microsoft also contributed to about 100 other trips with such partners as AT&T, Boeing, Amazon and Starbucks.

"Microsoft as an industry leader has a responsibility to work with policy leaders as they shape policy," Terzano said.

She said the company's Washington, D.C., office has grown in the past 11 years, along with rapid, industrywide changes in technology.

"Both our chairman and our CEO have acknowledged that since the issue with the Justice Department, Microsoft has made a very conscious decision to build up presence in Washington, D.C.," Terzano said.

Antitrust activists and Microsoft competitors alike decried the settlement accepted by the courts in November 2002.

"It was very clear it was a political settlement," said Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute.

The Justice Department's approach changed during the case, Foer said. Clinton administration lawyers had been attempting to break up Microsoft, but after George Bush was elected, "the new administration took strong remedies off the table."

Although there was no overall correlation between Microsoft's travel sponsorship and key developments in the antitrust case, in February 2000, the month of closing arguments in the case, Microsoft spent more than $18,900 on trips for staffers for seven senators.

In April 2000, when a court-appointed mediator announced settlement talks had failed, the Justice Department called for Microsoft to be broken apart. That same month, Microsoft spent more than $14,000 to bring 10 congressional travelers to Seattle.

Terzano called it "appropriate" for Microsoft to brief lawmakers or staff on the antitrust case.

Of the travelers Microsoft paid for, only DeLacy filed a trip-disclosure form with the Senate secretary that said the purpose was to be briefed on the antitrust case, among other issues. Travelers rarely are quite so specific.

The office of Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, took the most trips at Microsoft's expense — four between 2000 and 2002, when the federal antitrust case settled.

Staffers for Republican Sens. Larry Craig of Idaho, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Trent Lott of Mississippi each accepted three trips. Lott was Senate Republican leader at the time, and Hatch chaired the Judiciary Committee until June 2001.

Additional information from The Washington Post