Tobacco Documents Online

than pleasure. WALLACE: [voice-over] Business or pleasure, 10 members of Congress enjoyed a free trip to Florida earlier this month, along with their spouses, courtesy of Washington lobbyists. Critics call it a blatant conflict of interest. JOAN CLAYBROOK: When members of Congress take these expensive trips with industry lobbyists, it is the equivalent of legalized bribery. WALLACE: [voice-over] All expenses for four days and three nights - plane fare,, rooms, food, even greens fees - were picked up by lobbyists for the electronics industry who, at the same time, were seeking tax breaks and other legislation for some of America s biggest companies. PETER McCLOSKEY: I don't make any bones about the fact that we're trying to get our message across to members of Congress. WALLACE: Every year members of Congress accept more than 1,000 of these trips from corporate lobbyists, all completely within the rules that Congress has written for itself. One of the hot issues in the last campaign was how to end the cozy relationship between public servants and special interests. But for all the talk of reform, for some members of Congress it's still business as usual. [voice-overl At the South~ Seas Plantation resort on Captiva Island off Florida's west coast, the Electronic Industries Association, or EIA, hosted members of Congress for the 15th year with lobbyists from companies like General Electric, Westinghouse, and- Boeing. Only this year there were some others around: PrimeTime staffers posing as vacationers and taking plenty of pictures. When we told the members of Congress afterwards that we'd crashed their party,, most gave us the cold shoulder, but a few agreed to talk with us. Rep. BATEMAN: I resent any imputation that I have been bribed by anyone. I have not. WALLACE: [voice-over] Virginia Congressman Herbert Bateman says he went on the trip to exchange information with leaders of an important industry. [interviewing] Congressman, why couldn't you discuss all that right here in Washington? Why did you have to spend four days at a resort in Florida? Rep. BATEMAN: Because the meeting was in Florida. WALLACE: And the fact that there was golf available and tennis and they were going to take your wife - that's just purely coincidental? Rep. BATEMAN: It did not make it any less attractive, I would certainly admit.. WALLACE: [voice-over] The guest list - key members from some of Congress's most powerful committees. Bateman and Joel Hefley of Colorado are members of House Armed~ Services, of keen interest to defense companies. Philip Crane of Illinois is on Ways and Means, which writes the tax laws. Washington's Norman Dicks and Jim Chapman of Texas are on House Appropriations, which votes on how to spend the money. So is Tom DeLay of Texas. Other members: John Tanner of Tennessee, Wisconsin's Toby Roth, Barbara Vucanovich of Nevada, and Florida's Jim Bacchus. Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a consumer-advocacy group, says lobbyists choose Congressmen who can do them a lot of good or harm.

Ms. CLAYBROOK: They want a return. They want a quid pro quo. These industries want a quid pro quo from the members of Congress that they invite on these trips. WALLACE: [voice-over] Day one. Monday evening. After arriving at the resort, where rooms go for $255 a night, the lawmakers attend a poolside cocktail party, greeting their lobbyist hosts like old friends. Congressman Bateman works his way through the food line at a barbecue. Four members, including Chapman, have been on this trip before. In fact, a study two years ago showed that EIA paid for 55 Congressional trips over two years, the sixth most of any lobbying group. Day two, 8:00 A.M. Tuesday morning, and the activity moves from poolside to the conference center. Congressmen and lobbyists meet behind closed doors, but PrimeTime has obtained a copy of EIA's lobbying agenda for the trip. They discuss how to convert the shrinking defense industry to make civilian products and they talk about the space program. The industry's agenda shows it's pushing for full funding of the space station and opposes penalties for contractors who do shoddy work. Meanwhile, congressional wives are treated to breakfast and a sightseeing trip on board the Lady Chadwick- $35 for the average vacationer. Later they can get free tennis lessons, which normally go for $55 an hour. By 11: 15 the meetings are over. After only three hours, members of Congress have the rest of the day off. Crane has apparently heard enough. He heads for the pool and takes a nap under the Florida sun. Others, like Vucanovich, Chapman, and Delay, go to the golf course, where they and lobbyists play the rest of the afternoon. Greens fees here are $71 for a round of golf. Meanwhile, back at the resort they play what's called "The Congressional-Industry Tennis Tournament." The host of the trip is Peter McCloskey, president of EIA. Mr. McCLOS KEY: I don't think it's a vacation in Florida for them, no. I think it's a hard-working session. I think there's some leisure time. I think it's well-balanced. WALLACE: Mr. McCloskey, I think you're going to have a very hard time convincing people that these members of Congress are- are involved in hardship duty spending three days in Florida. Mr. McCLOSKEY: I didn't say it was a hardship duty. We try to put it in a place that will attract them. We don't put it in Nome, Alaska. WALLACE: [voice-over] McCloskey certainly knows his congressmen. Rep. BATEMAN: You don't have this kind of a conference and expect people to come in early April in Nome, Alaska. WALLACE: [voice- over] As the sun sets on Florida's gulf coast, no official events are scheduled that evening, but several lawmakers and spouses are taken to dinner by industry representatives. Day three, Wednesday morning, and again the meetings start at 8:00. They discuss the Clinton economic package and then hold a panel on energy and the environment. According to its agenda, the industry opposes new restrictions on electromagnetic fields coming from consumer products, which some scientists say are a health hazard. They also oppose new restrictions on the use of lead in making their products: The meetings are supposed to last until 11:00, but Congressman Chapman leaves early. Soon the rest of the lawmakers and lobbyists head for their cars. EIA has taken over a

golf course on the other side of the island. There's a big lunch on the lawn, to be followed by their own private golf tournament. Later, back in Washington, Congressman Crane says he went on the trip because the largest employer in his district is the electronics firml Motorola. Rep. PHILIP CRANE, (R); Illinois: The fact is, it's a working event and the- WALLACE: A working event? Rep. CRANE: -mornings are all working sessions. Right. WALLACE: You don't consider what you were on a vacation? Rep. CRANE: No. I don't consider it a vacation. Vacation time, to me, is time alone, total relaxing down time away from the telephones- the whole thing. That ti- that's vacation time. Here there were responsibilities every day. WALLACE: [voice-over]' But the responsibilities that afternoon involved golf, with each lawmaker paired with lobbyists. Crane is teamed with TRW and the Consumer Electronics Group. Tom DeLay, resplendent in knickers, gets Magnavox. Tanner plays along with Martin Marietta, Texas Instruments, and DuPont. Criticss say this is where the industry does its real business, building personal ties to influential congressmen. [interviewing] So there's a lot more going on here than a bunch of good old boys having a game of tennis or a round of golf. Ms. CLAYBROOK: Well, that's right. They have access, these industries, to members of Congress 24 hours a day for three or four days. That's a lot.'You can reallv influence someone that way; particularly when you don't hear the other side. WALLACE: (voice-over] There's another cocktail party anddinner that evening, complete with strolling musician and plenty of food and drink. EIA says, with special' rates it gets for a big conference, it spends about $2,500 on airfare, room, and entertainment for each congressional couple. But later, back in Washington, McCloskey says he couldn't get the same kind of access to members on Capitol Hill at any price. Mr. McCLOSKEY: They're torn so many different ways that when we make- have meetings with members of Congress here, we only get them for 10 or 15 minutes. WALLACE: But if you hold it in Florida- Mr. McCLOSKEY: Then they'll stay for the period of the conference and we won't have the distractions. We'll be able to focus on industry issues, and' I think it's successful because of that. WALLACE: [voice-over] Day four, Thursday. A 10th lawmaker, Jim Bacchus, has arrived the night before and joins a discussion on international trade. The final panel is on defense. According to its agenda, EIA wants less government regulation of its business. The trip is officially ended, but members of Congress are invited to stay on at their own expense - of course paying EIA's reduced rates. These kinds of trips are common practice, but some lawmakers turn them down on principle, such as Indiana's Andrew Jacobs.

Rep. ANDREW JACOBS, (D), Indiana: And the judgment about what is deserving- what deserves public expenditure or tax breaks and what does not should not be sweetened or altered by gifts. It's just that simple. WALLACE: [voice-over] Jacobs feels so strongly that this January he introduced a bill that would make a lobbyist-funded trip a federal crime: bribery. [interviewing] You're saying that if a congressman accepts a trip from a lobbyist, from a big business, that's bribery? Rep. JACOBS: Look at the other officialdom in our society. Where do we allow it? We don't allow it for policemen. We don't allow it for prosecutors. We don't allow it for judges, and so on. It's wrong, Ms. CLAYBROOK: I think that the industries think that they're going to get a return on their dollar because they're going to have access and they're going to be able to go back to these members when the moment arrives for a key vote. WALLACE: You certainly aren't suggesting that a member of Congress can be bought for a few days in the sun, are you'? Ms. CLAYBROOK: One member of Congress said it, I think, best, that you can't buy a member of ConQress, hut `ou can rent them. And I think that that's the problem. ~ WALLACE: [voice-over] It's-impossible to link these trips to specific-votes in Congress, although most of the members on the Captiva trip have strong pro-defense rec9rds. The host of the four days in Florida says he's not renting congressmen, just educating them. Mr. McCLOSKEY: [ don't think there is a conflict of interest. I think what they're getting here is information. I- I don't think they're influenced by two plane tickets and' a couple of nights in a hotel. WALLACE: What do you get for your $2,500? Mr. McCLOSKEY: Well, [ think what happens is industry gets to tell its story and the congressmen get to tell their point of view as well. WALLACE: Good investment'? Mr. McCLOSKEY: I think it is a good investment, not only for the industry, but I think it is for the American people. WALLACE: [voice-over] As for the members of Congress, they flatly deny being compromised by all the money lobbyists spend on them. [interviewing] You don't feel at all beholden to them when they do that? Rep. CRANE: Why? WALLACE: Because they've given you something of real value. Rep. CRANE: And' I've given them something-

WALLACE: I mean, I've got to tell you- Rep. CRANE: -of real value in exchange. WALLACE: Which is what? Rep. CRANE: My participation in their conference. WALLACE: So you can accept airfare, hotels, greens fees, dinners and you don't feel any sense of debt, any sense of being beholden? Rep. CRANE: None whatsoever. WALLACE: Do you think you've compromised yourself at all? Rep. BATEMAN: Indeed I did not. WALLACE: You don't feel that it affects your judgment in any way? Rep. BATEMAN: Indeed it does not. WALLACE: I take it that you wouldn't keep spending $2,500 per congressman and spouse if it didn't pay off for you. Mr. McCLOSKEY: I think we wouidn't spend the money if we didn't think it made sense. WALLACE: [v.oice-over] It makes sense to a lot of companies. Some congressmen who went to Captiva noted that our industry group, the National Association of Broadca5ters, does exactly the same thing, taking members of Congress to play golf in Florida or see the shows in Las Vegas, while at the same time seeking tax breaks and opposing new regulations. And last January we went undercover on a trip organized by U.S. Tobacco to Boca Raton, Florida, for 17 present and past members of Congress. Among the big names, Senate majority leader George Mitchell. And remember Congressman Chapman from Captiva? He was in Boca Raton, too. [interviewing] Do you take a lot of these trips? Rep. CRANE: Not a lot, but- WALLACE: [voice-over] But in four years Congressman Crane took 67 trips funded by private groups, more than one a month. In 1990 alone he went to Miami in February, West Palm Beach in March, Captiva in April for the electronics industry, San Francisco in May, Orlando in June, Taiwan for two weeks in August, New York in September, Monterey, California, in~ November, and Miami and Puerto Rico, also in November. [interviewing] Bottom line: You don't see anything wrong with continuing to go to these meetings all over the country, all over the world, and having big corporations pick up the tab? Rep. CRANE: No. I- I don't see any problem with that because there's no compromising of any position and it's all a matter of record. WALLACE: And you're going to keep doing it? Rep. CRANE: Certainly. It's a.way of maintaining that contact with your

constituents. SAWYER: While, as you saw, two members of Congress talked with us about the trip, five had no comment. Three others issued statements. Joel Hefley and Jim Bacchus said they went on the trip to promote their home districts as good sites for more electronics businesses. Jim Chapman said that he, quote, "would go to the moon, if necessary, to keep Texas industries strong and Texans employed." One other note. The electronics industry says this situation is no different than when they pay journalists to speak before their organization, though others point out journalists are hired to give a speech and nothing more, while members of Congress, who have been wined and dined, vote on legislation that has a direct impact on the industry.