House Members’ Speaking Fees Top $6.5 Million : Honorariums: New data for 1989 shows the tobacco industry led in rewarding lawmakers. One congressman averaged a free trip a week.

Even though House members have decided to forswear honorariums in the future, they collected $6.5 million in speaking fees from special interest groups last year, led by Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) with $285,000, according to documents made public Tuesday.

The tobacco industry, currently besieged by anti-smoking initiatives, was a clear leader in dispensing both honorariums and all-expenses-paid trips to House members in 1989. Nearly 30 members received $1,000 or $2,000 each and expenses to attend the Tobacco Institute’s two-day golf and tennis outing in Indian Wells, Calif., in January.

Another particularly generous group was the Connell Rice & Sugar Co., which paid at least 17 House members $2,000 each and expenses to travel to the company’s headquarters in Westfield, N.J., to have lunch with executives of the export and leasing firm.

Clearly, the most traveled House member in 1989 was House Majority Whip William H. Gray III (D-Pa.), who took 52 trips at the expense of special interest groups last year--an average of one per week--to a variety of destinations including San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.

But Rep. Tom Bevill (D-Ala.) may have set the record for the most honorariums collected during a single trip. As chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that decides how federal dollars will be spent for water projects, he collected $16,000 in back-to-back appearances in California and Arizona to groups interested in these appropriations.

And the top prize for overseas travel at special interest expense went not to a House member, but to the wife of Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), who made four trips paid for by lobbying groups to India, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Soviet Union. She apparently was accompanying her husband, who travels frequently at government expense in his role as chairman of the Asian and Pacific subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

This glimpse of the congressional high life emerged from a Times computer-assisted study of House financial disclosure reports for 1989. House members were required to submit their annual reports to the House clerk’s office on May 15, but they were not released until Tuesday.

Beginning next January, it will be illegal for House members to accept any honorariums. To compensate for the lost income, they have voted themselves a pay raise to $124,400 a year, which will take effect at the same time as the ban on honorariums.

Although the total amount of honorariums in 1989 did not exceed recent years, the amount received by individual lawmakers rose substantially because at least 112 House members voluntarily chose not to accept honorariums last year. This compared to about 80 who disavowed honorariums in 1988.

Of the 315 House members who reported receiving honorariums last year, the median was $26,000.

Unlike campaign contributions, speaking fees and other honorariums from special interests can be pocketed by House members up to a limit of $26,850 a year. But even though House rules require them to give the excess to charity, Rostenkowski was by no means the only one who earned more honorariums than he could keep.

The Times study found that more than 50 House members earned more than $26,850 in honorariums. Among the other leaders were Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) with $160,517; Gray with $156,098, and Rep. Willis D. Gradison Jr. (R-Ohio) with $105,300.

Rostenkowski, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has long been a leader in honorariums and received $222,500 in 1988. Last year, his honorariums included $10,500 from Citicorp and $7,500 each from 25 other corporations or special interest groups.

Numerous members reported receiving honorariums from the tobacco industry, and the recipients were certainly not limited to those who attended the industry’s January gathering in California. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) may have been the leader in tobacco honorariums with $2,000 from RJR Nabisco, $2,000 from Phillip Morris and $1,000 from the Tobacco Institute.

Connell’s use of honorariums to influence House members was particularly unusual. Although it regularly invites House members to come to its New Jersey facility, Connell has no Washington lobbyist and does not sponsor a political action committee.

One of the traditional leaders in congressional honorariums, the defense industry, was also well-represented last year. In addition to receiving defense honorariums, several members, including Reps. Charles Wilson (D-Tex.), Denny Smith (R-Ore.), William L. (Bill) Dickinson (D-Ala.), Richard H. Stallings (D-Ida.), Robert W. Davis (D-Mich.), Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn.) and Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.), took whirlwind tours of defense plants, with the costs divided evenly among the contractors involved. Not surprisingly, most of them stopped in California.

And even though LTV Corp. has struggled through five years in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, the Dallas-based aircraft and steel conglomerate still was able to give $2,000 each to many members of Congress, including Reps. Bill Sarpalius (D-Tex.), Tommy F. Robinson (R-Ark.), W. G. (Bill) Hefner (D-N.C.), Larry J. Hopkins (R-Ky.) and Duncan L. Hunter (R-San Diego).

Although foreign travel sponsored by special interests appeared to decline somewhat from 1988, some lawmakers still were treated to overseas trips.

A Taiwan interest group known as the Chinese National Assn. for Industry and Commerce sponsored trips to Taipei for many members and their spouses, including Reps. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Jim Lightfoot (R-Iowa), Jim McCrery (R-La.), Robin Tallon (D-S.C.) and Edolphus (Ed) Towns (D-N.Y.).

Tokyo was a popular stop. Rep. Norman D. Shumway (R-Stockton) parlayed the new interest in Japanese trade into three fact-finding trips to Tokyo sponsored by Japanese banking chief executive officers, the U.S.-Japan Economic Agenda and the Brookings Institution.

But perhaps the most unusual foreign conference was a four-day meeting in Brussels attended by Rep. Gerry Sikorski (D-Minn.) and his wife. It was sponsored by the Euro-Group for Animal Welfare.

There also was the usual circuit of celebrity golf and tennis tournaments, which often pay travel expenses to members of Congress who wish to play. Last year, they included the Congressional Charity Tennis Tournament at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, the Congressional Charity Golf Tournament at the Homestead in Virginia, and the Danny Thompson Memorial Golf Tournament at Sun Valley, Ida. Reps. Charles W. Stenholm (D-Tex.) and Herbert H. Bateman (R-Va.) went to all three tournaments.

Other avid golfers were Rostenkowski and Rep. Marty Russo (D-Ill.). Russo attended five golf tournaments and received full travel reimbursement for three of them, plus $1,151 in golf-related gifts. Rostenkowski got $1,060 in gifts at four golf tournaments and free travel to another one.

Even some House members who rejected honorariums were willing to travel at the expense of special interests. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) declared proudly on his disclosure report: “Congressman Boucher does not accept payment for his speaking services.” Nevertheless, Boucher acknowledged taking three foreign trips and one three-day jaunt to San Francisco at the expense of various outside groups.

While many House members such as Rostenkowski refused to disclose how they dispose of their excess honorariums, others listed the recipients of their generosity. House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich (D-Ga.), for example, gave one of the largest amounts--$29,304--to the Atlanta Zoo.

Likewise, most members do not itemize smaller gifts they receive from constituents and lobbyists. Rep. Alex McMillan (R- N.C.) was an exception. His seven-page list of small gifts appeared typical of the stuff that House members collect in a given year, including a carved plaque worth $24 from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, three pairs of Gold Toe socks, an aerial picture of Charlotte, N.C., and a $3 blue coffee cup from the Best Western Skyline Hotel.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), meanwhile, revealed that he has received more than $15,000 from Random House as an advance payment on a book he is writing. Frank is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for his acknowledged liaison with a male prostitute.

Staff writers William J. Eaton, Michael Ross, Oswald Johnston and Shawn Pogatchnik contributed to this story.

CALIFORNIA DELEGATION--1989 HONORARIUMS

Donations Cong. Total to Amount Name Dist. Honorariums Charity Pocketed 1. Henry A. Waxman 24th $60,300 $31,296 $29,004 2. Pete Stark 9th 56,353 29,503 26,850 3. Robert T. Matsui 3rd 43,750 16,900 26,850 4. Glenn M. Anderson 32nd 40,749 40,749 0 5. Norman Y. Mineta 13th 38,100 12,000 26,100 6. Richard H. Lehman 18th 33,250 6,400 26,850 7. Vic Fazio 4th 32,500 5,650 26,850 8. Mel Levine 27th 32,000 12,400 19,600 9. Jerry Lewis 35th 31,000 4,500 26,500 10. David Dreier 33rd 29,600 8,200 21,400 11. Bill Thomas 20th 28,500 1,700 26,800 12. George E. Brown,Jr. 36th 28,150 8,000 20,150 13. Bill Lowery 41st 28,000 1,650 26,350 14. George Miller 7th 26,675 0 26,675 15. Jim Bates 44th 25,100 0 25,100 16. Leon E. Panetta 16th 23,500 0 23,500 17. Howard L. Berman 26th 22,700 0 22,700 18. Duncan L. Hunter 45th 21,250 0 21,250 19. Carlos J. Moorhead 22nd 19,250 0 19,250 20. Ronald V. Dellums 8th 19,138 0 19,138 21. Barbara Boxer 6th 14,000 0 14,000 22. William E. Dannemeyer 39th 11,882 0 11,882 23. Robert K. Dornan 38th 11,250 0 11,250 24. Norman D. Shumway 14th 10,500 0 10,500 25. Mervyn M. Dymally 31st 10,027 0 10,027 26. Tom Lantos 11th 10,000 0 10,000 27. Wally Herger 2nd 9,500 0 9,500 28. Ron Packard 43rd 7,500 0 7,500 29. Matthew G. Martinez 30th 6,400 0 6,400 30. Tom Campbell 12th 5,500 0 5,500 31. Nancy Pelosi 5th 5,000 5,000 0 32. Augustus F. Hawkins 29th 3,750 0 3,750 33. Esteban E. Torres 34th 3,750 0 3,750 34. Dana Rohrabacher 42nd 2,550 2,550 0 35. Julian C. Dixon 28th 2,000 0 2,000

Representatives Anthony C. Beilenson, Douglas H. Bosco, C. Christopher Cox, Don Edwards, Elton Gallegly, Robert J. Lagomarsino, Al McCandless, Charles Pashayan Jr., and Edward R. Roybal received no honorariums in 1989.