Waxman Tops Local List in Gifts From Key Backers : Politics: But financial reports show his honorarium total fell sharply from 1990, the last year that House members could retain up to $26,850.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), a national leader on health care, was paid $21,250 in honorariums last year by such groups as the American Hospital Assn. and the American Pharmaceutical Assn. He also took six expense-paid trips, including two to Israel.

At a time when congressional perks are increasingly under fire, Waxman was again the top San Fernando Valley-area recipient of such controversial largess from special interests in 1991, according to personal financial reports made public Thursday.

But for the first time last year, lawmakers were required to donate all their speaking fees to charities. Congress in 1990 increased House salaries from $89,000 to $125,000 while banning honorariums--payments that government-reform groups called tantamount to legalized bribery.

Waxman’s honorarium total fell sharply from 1990, the last year that House members could retain up to $26,850 in speaking fees. That year, Waxman totaled $70,123; he kept $26,660.

Other Valley lawmakers followed suit. Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) reduced his speaking fees from $16,000 in 1990 to $3,850 in 1991, and Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) took $1,200 last year after accepting $12,900 from various sources in 1990. Berman’s fees were for three speeches at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

At the same time, however, Moorhead and Berman continued to accept various privately financed trips. Moorhead and his wife took four trips last year; Berman, three.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), long critical of honorariums and trips sponsored by special-interest groups, continued his practice of refusing to accept any such gifts.

Moorhead said he was pleased to see House members prohibited from keeping speaking fees. Though he said he doubted that the fees or the access that they bring influenced lawmakers, he feared that the public may still perceive that such gifts curry favor.

“I figure they want us to be fairly frugal about these things at the present time,” Moorhead said, referring to both Congress and the public.

Waxman said that he hadn’t dramatically reduced his speaking engagements because he could no longer keep any of the proceeds. Rather, he said, “I didn’t get as many invitations last year and I wasn’t interested in some of the invitations or couldn’t accommodate them.”

The powerful chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and environment received $2,000 each from the American Assn. College of Pharmacy; the United Fruit and Vegetables Assn.; the Medical Group Management Assn; the American Frozen Foods Institute and the American College of Gastroenterology, as well as the hospital and pharmaceutical associations. Another $2,000 came from the National Assn. of Realtors.

“I enjoy making these speeches,” Waxman said. “It gives an opportunity for these organizations to hear what I have to say about the issues that I’m involved in legislatively. I enjoy the opportunity to raise money to help some of the charities that I care about.”

His charitable contributions from speaking fees included $4,000 to the United Jewish Welfare Fund; $2,000 each to the United Jewish Appeal and the National Organization for Rare Diseases and $1,000 each to the L.A. Free Clinic and the Children’s Defense Fund.

Waxman also took six trips. He brought his son, Michael, 18, on three of them and took his wife to Israel twice. The sponsors included the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Assn., which met in Anaheim, and the National Assn. of Realtors, which convened in Las Vegas. He also traveled to Boston, and Ottawa and Toronto in Canada.

Noting that the House rules permit a family member to accompany a lawmaker, Waxman said, “If it’s a nice place, it gives us time to spend together.”

Waxman makes frequent trips to Israel, where his daughter resides with her husband and son. The 1991 trips were sponsored by the Israeli Forum, which brings Israeli Jews together with Jews elsewhere in the world, and the Brookdale Institute for Gerontology and Adult Human Development, a Jewish philanthropic organization. Waxman said he paid for a third family trip last year himself.

During the trip sponsored by the Brookdale Institute in December, Waxman said he helped advise Israelis who are undertaking a major reform of the nation’s health-care system. He joined an advisory committee to the institute last year.

“There are a lot of incentives for me to go to Israel,” said Waxman, a prominent congressional ally of the Jewish state. His constituency is heavily Jewish as well.

“I have many friends in Israel; I follow what goes on inside Israel and its relationship with the United States and the hostile Arab countries very carefully. One of my legislative priorities is to be actively involved in the U.S.-Israeli relationship and to seek ways to have the U.S. play a positive role so Israel can live in peace.”

Moorhead and his wife went to New Orleans for a three-day trip funded by the National Cable Television Assn. and the lawmaker received $1,500 to speak to the cable group. As a member of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and finance, Moorhead is active on cable issues. He said he participated in such sessions to learn more about cable issues.

“I have voted against them on many things,” Moorhead said of the politically potent industry. “I am not their enemy; I am not their friend. . . . I just feel I have to do as close to the right thing as I can.”

Moorhead took three other trips as well sponsored by the United States Telephone Assn., the National Agricultural Chemicals Assn. and the Congressional Institute, a Republican policy group. He received $2,000 from the Amusement and Music Operators Assn.

The veteran lawmaker said he made his charitable contributions to a group that assists orphans in Peru, to a church and Salvation Army program that feeds the homeless in Glendale, and to the Campus Crusade for Christ, a charitable and Bible study group.

Berman accepted trips sponsored by the American Hospital Assn. to San Diego and Los Angeles and the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, to Houston. The third trip to Jacksonville, Fla., was paid by the Democratic National Committee.

The financial reports--which include disclosures about individuals’ personal assets--also provided some information about the holdings of Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, the wealthy Santa Clarita city councilman who spent at least $80,000 of his own money to win the hard-fought GOP nomination for Congress in the heavily Republican 25th District this month.

McKeon, part owner of Howard & Phil’s Western Wear chain, earned $294,556 in salary in 1991 and has stocks, business holdings, money market funds and properties valued at $515,000 to $1.4 million. At the same time, he reported liabilities of $165,000 to $400,000. He is also a director of Valencia National Bank.

The reports require candidates to disclose the assets and liabilities within broad financial categories.