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Washington Post: Lawmakers and Lobbyists Mingle on Trip to London

For most Americans, August is a time for summer vacation. For members of Congress, their aides and some lobbyists, it's a time for privately sponsored junkets.

Few are as inviting as the Ripon Educational Fund excursions, which take politicians and corporate types to various European locales. While the trips are filled with serious policy discussions, they also reveal how corporate interests obtain access to lawmakers through privately sponsored travel.

This month, for example, 20 members of Congress jetted to London for a week-long visit in which they delved into such issues as trade, terrorism and foreign affairs. These politicians had no fear of getting lonely, however: More than 100 lobbyists accompanied them, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The corporate participants included representatives from American Express, AOL Time Warner, Bristol-Myers Squibb, General Motors and Hewlett-Packard, according to the group's itinerary. Corporate sponsors must pay annual membership fees of $9,500 and fund their own trips abroad.