Schroeder’s $114,000 Tops List as House Members’ Honorariums Increase in 1988

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) took more than 40 all-expenses-paid trips and collected more than $114,000 in appearance fees in 1988, making her the leader in honorariums among the more than 400 House members whose personal financial disclosure reports were made public Monday.

Just as Schroeder’s honorariums more than doubled from $50,630 in 1987, the total flow of special-interest money to members of the House also increased substantially last year, despite growing criticism of members who pocket these fees in addition to the $89,500 annual government salary.

According to a tally by Common Cause, the citizens’ lobby, the 379 current House members who also served in that chamber last year received a total of $5,880,927 in appearance fees during 1988. That raised the average total honorariums for each member from $14,955 to $15,517.

Rostenkowski Report Awaited

And the 1988 average could be understated. The House clerk has not yet received a personal financial disclosure report from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), who is normally the leading recipient of honorariums.

A spokesman said that Rostenkowski mailed his report to the clerk before the May 15 deadline but that it apparently “got lost in the mail” and will be made public today.

Twenty-two other House members did not file their reports by the deadline and received permission from the clerk to submit them later. The Senate reports were made public Friday.

Unlike campaign contributions, honorariums go directly into the pockets of members of Congress. House members are permitted to keep honorariums equal to 30% of their salary--$26,850 for all but top congressional leaders--and return any excess to the donor or give it to charity. Most members say they give the money to charity, but few disclose the recipients.

$1 Million-Plus for Charity

Common Cause reported that $1,078,825 of the $5,880,927 in honorariums reported on Monday was given away to charity, leaving $4,802,102 in members’ pockets.

Schroeder, a popular figure on the speaking circuit who considered seeking the presidency last year, reported that she gave $88,216 of her honorariums to charity and pocketed the remaining $25,784. Her hosts also paid her way to such places as Hawaii, Santa Barbara, Miami and New Orleans.

Schroeder was by no means the only House member who received large quantities of honorariums. Other leading recipients included Reps. William H. Gray III (D-Pa.), $110,788; Tony Coelho (D-Merced), $90,100; Bill Gradison (R-Ohio), $88,650; Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), $71,750; Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), $60,500; Bill Frenzel (R-Minn.) $60,200; Thomas A. Luken (D-Ohio), $54,600; Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), $53,500, and Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento), $47,500.

Perhaps the longest single trip was taken by Reps. Charles W. Stenholm (D-Tex.) and Jerry Huckaby (D-La.) and their wives, who spent 12 days in Australia and New Zealand. Expenses were paid by a group of companies, including Qantas Airways and Australian Meat & Livestock Corp.

Rep. Guy Vander Jagt (R-Mich.) traveled to Monte Carlo to give a speech for Metropolitan Life, which also paid him a $2,000 honorarium. Rep. Barbara F. Vucanovich (R-Nev.) went with her husband for a weeklong trip to the South Pacific paid by Resettlement Trust Fund for the People of Bikini, and Edolphus (Ed) Towns (D-N.Y.) visited Nigeria, Angola and the Congo with expenses paid by Citizens Energy Corp.

Many members visited interesting places closer to home. Rep. Bob Carr (D-Mich.), for example, went to Beverly Hills at the expense of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, Palm Springs courtesy of Hughes Aircraft Co. and the Tobacco Institute, West Palm Beach, Fla., at the expense of the National Air Transport Assn., Las Vegas on the National Assn. of Broadcasters, Boca Raton, Fla., on the U.S. Telephone Assn. and Hawaii on the American Assn. of Airport Executives.

Special interests directed most of their money at high-ranking members of committees that govern their fate.

12-Day Golf Trip

Rep. Joseph M. McDade of Pennsylvania, the top-ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, enjoyed a 12-day California golf trip and earned $7,500 in speaking fees from General Dynamics, Cubic Corp. and TRW. His air fare was paid by Chrysler Corp., and his Palm Springs food and lodging were paid for by the Tobacco Institute, which later in the year gave him $2,000 for speaking.

McDade is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for accepting $45,000 in speaking fees and campaign contributions from a defunct defense contractor, United Chem Con Corp., which also opened a plant in his home district.

Rep. Charles Wilson (D-Tex.), another member of the Appropriations defense subcommittee, took an eight-day tour of defense plants owned by Rockwell International Corp., Aerojet-General Corp., General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas Corp., Northrop Corp., Lockheed Corp. and Marquardt & Co. Inc. Aeorjet paid no honorariums; Rockwell paid $1,000, and the rest gave him $2,000 each.

And Rep. William L. Dickinson of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, received $32,250 in honorariums, with most of it coming from defense contractors such as Northrop, McDonnell Douglas, Teledyne Inc., Hughes Aircraft, General Dynamics, Pratt & Whitney, General Electric, Sikorsky Aircraft, Oshkosh Truck Corp., Martin Marietta Corp., Textron Inc., Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Morton Thiokol Inc. He also took several trips to undisclosed locations financed by Northrop, McDonnell Douglas and Westinghouse.

A number of firms under investigation by federal authorities were particularly generous in providing fees and trips to members of Congress. These included the Chicago commodity futures exchanges and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. Many members reported that they were paid a fee to travel to Chicago to tour the exchanges.

Rep. Glenn English (D-Okla.), who is heading a House investigation of scandal-ridden commodity futures exchanges, received honorariums of $1,000 from the Chicago Board of Trade and $400 apiece from the New York Mercantile Exchange; Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange; New York Cotton Exchange; New York Futures Exchange, and New York Commodity Exchange.

Reimbursement at Resort

The Board of Trade also reimbursed English and his wife for air travel, lodging and meals at a Boca Raton resort where the futures industry stages its annual convention.

Among those who received free trips to Beverly Hills and honorariums from Drexel were Coelho and Reps. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) and Bruce A. Morrison (D-Conn.). Richardson and Morrison were paid $1,000 speech honorariums; Coelho received $2,000.

Michel, the House Republican leader, indulged his liking for golf by accepting expense-paid trips to the resort areas of Palm Springs, Sun Valley, Ida., and Vail, Colo., to take part in charity golf tournaments. Michel also reported receiving nearly $1,000 worth of golf accessories.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) demonstrated a similar passion for golf. He reported receiving $350 worth of golf attire and accessories at the Bob Hope Classic, $316 at the Kemper Open, $150 at the Houston Golf Assn. tournament, $140 at the Danny Thomas Memorial classic and $162 at the Larry Bird charity event.

A few members apparently were trying to make fun of the financial disclosure process by reporting the gifts they received in excruciating detail. Rep. Alex McMillan (R-N.C.) reported six pages of gifts, including “two green bagels (from) Rep. Bruce Morrison,” a brass ornament from Yellowstone National Park valued at $9.95 and “two cups of Marinos real italian ices” from a fellow congressman.

Rep. Andrew Jacobs Jr. (D-Ind.) filed a page listing personal holdings not required by the financial disclosure report. Among other things, he listed “Annie,” a cocker spaniel not housebroken, as a “current liability.” But two housebroken dogs were reported as “non-liquid assets” with a “priceless” value.

Staff writers Paul Houston, Josh Getlin, William J. Eaton and Brian Couturier also contributed to this story.