Hatch, Bennett frequent fliers

Do you get to travel much for your job — free trips to Prague, Berlin, New York City, Helsinki, Spain, maybe to Florida four times over the past 3 1/2 years?

No?

Clearly you are not a member of the U.S. Congress from Utah.

Deseret Morning News graphic Bob Bennett's travel Requires Adobe Acrobat.

National Public Radio's Marketplace program and American RadioWorks, an NPR subsidiary, has collected and collated the privately paid trips U.S. congressmen have taken since 1999. NPR points out that while congressional rules don't allow a lawmaker to accept any gift over $50, travel and its "reasonable" associated expenses, like meals, aren't restricted.

While U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, both R-Utah, are not the leaders of the travel pack, the senators have chalked up some serious fly-miles, the NPR report shows.

Meanwhile, Reps. Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop, both R-Utah, and Jim Matheson, D-Utah, congressional neophytes compared with Hatch and Bennett, rank well down in the special-interest-funded trips they've taken.

And no Utah federal legislator cracked the top 100 in overall acceptance of free trips or in length of free trips, the report found. But Bennett isn't far out of the running — or flying.

Since 1999, Bennett, who seeks a third, six-year term this year, has gone on 11 privately funded trips at a total cost of $35,512.28. The report only looked at privately funded travel; the review does not include any official trips that Congress itself pays for.

Bennett ranks 130th out of the 582 congressmen who traveled during that time frame. There are 535 members of Congress, but the NPR review included former congressmen who served during the four-year study time.

Bennett took an eight-day trip to Helsinki, Finland, in August 2001, at a cost of $6,326. It was paid for by the prestigious Aspen Institute, a wealthy think tank/leadership development group whose yearly seminars are attended by top U.S. corporate and political leaders. Former President Bill Clinton yearly attended Aspen Institute meetings.

The institute also paid for Bennett to go on a seven-day trip to Prague, Czech Republic, in August 2000, which cost $5,131. Ditto for an institute trip in January 2002; six days to Punta Mita, Mexico, a Pacific coast resort town, $6,164.16.

The institute has spent more than $2.5 million sending various congressmen to seminars around the world over the past 3 1/2 years, the study showed, the largest provider of free travel to Congress. While the institute does not lobby Congress, many other travel-givers do.

For example, Bennett took a two-day trip to Palm Beach, Fla., on the tab of the Direct Marketing Association to give a speech on "privacy, tax and banking issues." Cost: $3,369.20.