Lawmakers dash to correct records of trips

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More than 200 lawmakers have rushed to correct travel-disclosure statements in recent months as reporters on Capitol Hill discover more discrepancies in the wake of questions about travel by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

?You're dealing with hundreds,? said Kent Cooper, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a Web site that compiles the forms after they're filed with the clerk's office and makes it available at www.fecinfo.com. ?There's a ton more for staffers.?

Mr. Cooper said his figure covered parts of April and May, a period during which the scrutiny of gift travel -- which is funded by corporations and outside interest groups -- heightened on the heels of accusations that Mr. DeLay accepted travel from a registered lobbyist, which is barred under House ethics rules.

The widespread scrutiny -- aided by opposition researchers from both parties -- has prompted amended reports from top leaders in both parties and even from members of the ethics panel. The most intense scrutiny has focused on the most frequent travelers.

Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., a Tennessee Democrat who is running for the Senate, holds first place as Congress' most prolific traveler since 2000. While his travel reports have been trouble-free in recent years, that has not always been the case.

From 1998 to 2003, he took 61 privately funded trips. During that period, he failed to file a single travel-disclosure form with the House clerk, as required by the chamber's ethics rules.

While he listed the trips on his financial-disclosure forms at the end of each year, Mr. Ford did not make public the purpose or value of the trips paid for by companies and outside groups, since the financial-disclosure form -- unlike the travel form -- does not require such information.

When Mr. Ford learned he had failed to file the required travel forms, spokesman Zac Wright said, Mr. Ford rushed to fill out and file dozens of travel-disclosure forms -- some as many as five years late -- on Aug. 19, 2003.

"It was a simple oversight," Mr. Wright said. "It was cleared up [almost] two years ago proactively by the congressman. It was a minor thing."

The lapse by Mr. Ford highlights the pitfalls members of Congress say are associated with gift travel and the rules that govern it.