Congress Not Junking Its Junkets, Reports Show : Perks: Despite criticism, House members are still jetting around on the tab of special interests and collecting honorariums.

Despite growing criticism of congressional perks and a newly imposed ban on honorariums, many House members made no effort to scale back on trips to posh resorts and exotic foreign destinations at the expense of special interests in 1991, according to financial disclosure documents made public Thursday.

In addition to the usual all-expenses-paid junkets to such warm-weather havens as Boca Raton, Fla., Palm Springs and Phoenix in 1991, members of Congress also traveled to Kuwait at the expense of Fluor Corp. of Irvine and toured China on a trip sponsored by the government of the People’s Republic.

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) did more traveling at the expense of others than any of her colleagues in the House. According to her financial disclosure report, she took at least 50 trips, mostly for speaking engagements. But unlike many other well-traveled members, she appeared to shy away from exotic resorts.

Likewise, Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) took at least 46 such trips, including a three-day junket to Bermuda at the expense of the conservative magazine National Review.

Even though House members no longer can pocket honorariums as a result of ethics rules that took effect in January, 1991, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) collected $110,000 in speaking fees, which he gave to undisclosed charities. The total was a sharp cutback from the $310,000 in honorariums he collected in 1990.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), another big recipient of honorariums in the past, accepted only $21,250 in 1991, also passing it along to charities.

But the end of honorariums clearly did not discourage House members from accepting free trips from the same special interest groups that previously paid them appearance fees. Although trips for members of Congress sponsored by special interests now are limited somewhat by 1989 amendments to the ethics rules, they are still permitted.

San Diego County’s congressmen did relatively little expense-paid traveling in 1991 and received few other gifts, according to financial disclosure statements.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) received four round-trip air fares between San Diego and Sacramento, and 11 days food and lodging last summer from a conservative group called Californians for Fair Congressional Reapportionment. In Sacramento, Hunter helped devise Republican proposals for congressional redistricting.

Two companies--General Dymanics and Milliken Textiles Manufacturing--paid for Hunter to fly to Dallas and New York City, respectively, to deliver speeches, his report shows. Along with other members of Congress, Hunter received round-trip train fare from Washington to Princeton, N.J., for a three-day seminar sponsored by the Congressional Institute.

Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) reported only two trips in 1991: the Congressional Institute seminar, and an overnight trip to Chattanooga, Tenn., with air fare and lodging paid by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Freshman Rep. Randall (Duke) Cunningham (R-Chula Vista) took no free trips last year, according to his report, but received $3,000 for two speeches before shipbuilding and insurance industry groups, with the money being donated to charities.

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) listed assets other than his own home valued at 96,000 to $265,000. Although Packard reported considerable assets, including 80 acres in Oceanside, investment diamonds, a coin collection and stock in the 1st National Bank of North County, he said he earned no income on those holdings in 1991. Packard reported four trips paid for by private groups: the Oregon Health Sciences University; the American Gas Assn.; Techtrans, which paid for a visit to Las Vegas, and the Danny Thomas Memorial Golf Tournament in Sun Valley, Ida. Packard, an avid golfer, also receieved $200 in gifts from the Kemper Open Golf Tournament, held each year in Maryland. Packard received $1,300 from speaking engagements before the Americans for Safe and Competitive Trucking and the American College of Dentists. He donated the money to charity. Packard serves on the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation.