While overall congressional travel abroad has fallen sharply this year, Israel remains the top destination for lawmakers taking privately sponsored overseas trips, according to data compiled by the LegiStorm tracking platform.
More than one-quarter of the roughly $1.62 million spent on privately funded congressional travel through April went toward trips to Israel, the report found. The total reflects 14 trips sponsored by organizations including the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, the J Street Education Fund and the U.S. Israel Education Association.
The J Street Education Fund and AIEF ranked third and fourth, respectively, among all sponsors of congressional travel during the year’s first four months, trailing only Republican Main Street Partnership and the Aspen Institute. Together, those four organizations accounted for roughly half of all reported travel spending through April.
Republican Main Street Partnership led all sponsors with more than $307,000 in travel expenditures, including a trip to Scotland for 20 Republican lawmakers focused on U.S.-U.K. business and trade ties.
Israel’s prominence reflects both the number of congressional delegations visiting the country and the high security costs associated with such travel. LegiStorm reported that a USIEA-sponsored retreat disclosed by Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) was the most expensive trip reported by a lawmaker so far this year, totaling more than $60,000 in expenses. The trip, focused on U.S.-Israel relations, was also attended by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Scott Franklin (R-Fla.).
Through April, lawmakers reported 103 privately sponsored trips, the fewest for that period in any non-pandemic year over the past decade. Even so, the average trip cost nearly $16,000, the second-highest inflation-adjusted figure for the period in the last 10 years.
