Trips Funded by Outside Groups Yielded Benefits, Congressmen Say : Government: Berman, Waxman and Moorhead traveled with their wives to symposiums and other events, reports show. The practice is legal.

WASHINGTON —  Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) took trips to Israel, Hawaii and Laguna Niguel with his wife last year that were funded by special-interest groups, according to financial reports released Friday.

Waxman was not the only San Fernando Valley-area lawmaker to engage in this practice, which is legal. Reps. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) went on special-interest-funded trips with their wives in 1992 as well. Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) did not take any such trips or deliver any paid talks.

In most instances, the lawmakers made speeches or attended symposiums--many put on by groups whose high-stakes interests are directly affected by federal legislation. House members, who were paid $129,500 last year, abolished the much-criticized practice of retaining speaking fees from such ventures; they are required to donate them to charities of their choice.

Waxman gave 10 speeches and charged $2,000 for each. Berman gave three for a total of $2,400 and Moorhead gave five for overall fees of $6,000. The three Valley-area congressmen generally gave the money to nonprofit organizations within their districts. Such gestures tend to build goodwill among constituents.

In interviews Friday, the representatives called the trips useful for gathering information, educating key constituencies or brainstorming with experts. They also touted the virtues of the charitable contributions to soup kitchens, AIDS groups and Jewish organizations. Each said he was not influenced by the largess of his hosts.

The veteran congressmen said they often brought their wives because the trips represented a rare opportunity in their hectic schedules to spend time together. Berman said that his wife, Janis, who is also politically active, was often interested in the topic; Waxman cited social occasions at national conventions he addresses.

House rules permit a host to pay travel costs for one relative in addition to the lawmaker.

Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and environment, spoke primarily to health groups. He took a trip to Laguna Niguel sponsored by the National Health Lawyers Assn. and another to Los Angeles, paid for by the Los Angeles Radiologists.

“It’s very important for me to give them a perspective that will help them view things in a way that might not otherwise be the case,” Waxman said. “Sometimes it’s giving them a different opinion, sometimes it is letting them know what is going on in Washington.”

Waxman said he took his six-day trip to Hawaii in August to learn about the Hawaiian health care system, which provides near-universal coverage. Air fare and three nights in Maui for Waxman and his wife, Janet, were paid for by the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; a fourth night in Honolulu was covered by the state of Hawaii.

“I wanted to find out from people how (the Hawaiian program) is working and to see what application there might be for health care changes nationally,” Waxman said.

Waxman said he met with individuals from Kaiser, the state government and the University of Hawaii’s School of Public Health. He also received a briefing on a health care program for native Hawaiians that he had sponsored in the House.

Waxman and his wife traveled to Israel for a week at the end of the year as part of a group sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Education Foundation. Waxman, a prominent supporter of the Jewish state and a veteran of many Mideast trips, said that the organization asked him to escort several newly elected American lawmakers to meet with Israeli leaders, negotiators to the Arab-Israeli peace talks, Israeli scholars and Palestinian leaders and to tour the country. He called it “a valuable trip.”

Berman’s trips were more modest. He traveled to Phoenix for a few hours to address the Phoenix Trial Lawyers Assn. about his insurance reform legislation; he drove from Los Angeles to Palm Desert to speak to the American Psychiatric Assn. about health care; he attended a seminar on missile proliferation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he and his wife spent two days at a conference on advanced telecommunications policy at the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, in Aspen, Colo.

“I’m in the middle of a lot of telecommunications issues,” said Berman, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which handles much telecommunications policy. “I think I learned more than I contributed” at the Aspen conference. He called the MIT conference “a tremendous learning experience.”

Moorhead, meanwhile, spent a weekend at an American Medical Assn. seminar in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; three days at a National Cable Television Assn. session in Dallas, and two days at a National Assn. of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas. He brought his wife, Valery, each time.

As a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee, Moorhead is active on telecommunications and health care issues.

Referring to health care, he said: “I’ve tried everything under the sun to learn as much as I can about it. It’s a big subject.”

As far as showing partiality on telecommunications issues, Moorhead said the cable television industry and broadcasters are “on opposite sides of everything.” He maintained that his attendance at both groups’ functions shows that he is “listening to both sides.”

MAIN STORY: A20