Talk Is Cheap, but Congress Finds Curiosity Pays : Ethics: Speaking fees are out. But financial reports show that ‘fact finding’ junkets keep lawmakers on the move at taxpayers’ expense.

Although members of Congress have jumped off the speaking fee gravy train, many are still taking planes to sunny and snowy resorts on “fact finding” junkets sponsored by special interest groups, according to financial reports released Friday.

The traveling lawmaker often is a Democratic committee chairman or a ranking Republican--and the sponsoring group usually has vital business before the lawmaker’s panel. Thus, while Congress has made progress cleaning up its house--abolishing speech honorariums and perquisites that sparked scandals last year--it continues to cling to some traditional practices which, though legal, raise ethical questions.

For example, House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia spent 49 days on the road last year at the expense of political and business groups. And Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, took extended trips last year to Sun Valley, Ida.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Palm Springs, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev., courtesy of the commodities industry and other concerns with an interest in tax legislation.

“Rosty,” as he is widely known, also accepted $80,500 for speaking to 41 groups, ranging from architects to truck stop operators. Although he would have pocketed much of it in the past, he had to donate all the money to charity under Congress’ new ban on honorariums.

Congress gave up honorariums last year in exchange for raising members’ pay to $133,644 from $129,500.

As in the House, interest groups lured key members of the tax-drafting Senate Finance Committee to plush places. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assn., worried about possible price controls on drugs, brought Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (D-Kan.), to West Palm Beach for a speech. And the Tobacco Institute, whose cigarette firms are fighting a possible $2-a-pack tax hike to pay for health care reform, flew Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.) to Palm Springs to speak.

Tobacco interests paid for similar trips by other key lawmakers, including Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), Rep. Bob Carr (D-Mich.) and Rep. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.).

Such trips, often lasting two to five days with the spouse’s expenses also covered, are allowed by congressional ethics panels if they involve “fact finding” or “significant participation” in the group’s event. Typically, there is a morning seminar or an evening speech--and recreation or entertainment the rest of the time.

Many of California’s 52 House members showed no hesitancy in accepting expense-paid trips last year to sunny destinations during winter months.

Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), chairman of House Democrats’ campaign committee, spent four days in November with his wife in Key West, Fla., at a gathering of the U.S. Telephone Assn., as did another Californian, then-House GOP caucus chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), and his wife.

Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) met in November with a banking group in Tucson; Rep. Calvin Dooley (D-Visalia) went to Palm Beach, Fla., on the tab of the American Medical Assn. and Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) was in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for five days at the invitation of the Urban Institute.

Miller, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, also mixed with executives at a corporate-sponsored charity golf tournament in Sun Valley, Ida., for four days, and spent five days in Denver as a guest of Vail Associates, which owns and operates ski resorts.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment, said that his six-day trip to Hawaii with his wife in August was a chance to learn about the state’s health care system, which provides near-universal coverage. The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan paid for air fare and three nights in Maui; the state of Hawaii footed a fourth night in Honolulu.

“I wanted to find out from people how (the Hawaiian program) is working and to see what application there might be for health care changes nationally,” Waxman said.

While the Senate is often called a millionaire’s club because of such members as John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) and John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), many senators are far from rich, the disclosure statements show.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) listed two bank accounts containing less than $15,000 as his only assets. Besides his Senate salary, his only other income last year was less than $1,000 in interest earned on his bank accounts and $400, later donated to charity, for a cameo appearance in the movie “Dave.”

Even more interesting was the report of Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.). The powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who controls billions of dollars in federal funds, owns no stocks or bonds and listed four certificates of deposit, valued at between $15,000 and $50,000, as his only assets outside of an IRA and checking accounts. He took no trips and accepted no gifts or honorariums last year.

Byrd owns homes here and in West Virginia, but a spokeswoman explained his lack of other investments this way: “You’re talking about a man who brings a baloney sandwich and a jar of milk in a brown bag to lunch every day.”

Another multimillionaire, freshman Rep. Michael Huffington (R-Santa Barbara), reported that he had no earned income last year. A spokeswoman said that, aside from his House salary, he lives off his investments and the proceeds from the 1990 sale of his family-owned Texas oil firm. Huffington spent $4.5 million of his own money--more than any House candidate in history--to win his 22nd District congressional seat last November.

The financial reports provided many other fascinating nuggets:

* Rep. Dan Miller (R-Fla.) runs a store on the side that sells snakes and tarantulas. “It’s unbelievable, the stuff people buy,” he told the Associated Press.

* Rep. Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.) claimed a $105 income-tax deduction for drug tests on himself and two aides. It was to promote drug-free workplaces, an aide said.

* Breaux and Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) help make ends meet by renting out the basements of their Washington homes.

* Dole’s wife, Elizabeth Hanford Dole, president of the American Red Cross, charged $20,000 each for speeches to 14 groups, including Bakersfield College and the Fresno Chamber of Commerce. The senator, who has to list spousal income, said that the $328,000 in total fees, which included other speeches, covered expenses as well as contributions to a retirement plan and to a Red Cross fund for “at-risk youth.”

* Rep. Ron Klink (D-Pa.) earned $40,000 last year while employed by his campaign manager, Dennis Casey. Casey hired Klink, who was on unpaid leave from his job as a television reporter while he campaigned for Congress, to research a crime book he was writing.

* Freshman Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) earned a state police disability pension by tearing up his knee while chasing a bicycle thief.

* Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), ranking Republican on a committee with broad jurisdiction over natural resources, collected $50,000, mostly from seafood firms, to help pay off an out-of-court settlement; a campaign opponent had alleged that Young slandered him.

* Rep. Jolene Unsoeld (D-Wash.), a loud critic of the 1989 Exxon oil spill in Alaska, earned up to $5,000 in dividends from her Exxon Corp. stock, which is valued at up to $250,000 (lawmakers are required to report values only in broad ranges). She said that she holds on to the stock because it was a gift from her father.

But what really stands out in the reports are the trips. Consider Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio), a senior Republican repeatedly feted by firms with business before his Energy and Commerce Committee. He played in three golf and two tennis tournaments and made seven other long stays at tourist meccas in Florida, Colorado, Utah, West Virginia, Idaho, California and Europe.

Times staff writers Michael Ross, Robert L. Jackson, Howard Libit, Glenn Bunting and Alan C. Miller contributed to this story.

Congressional Portfolio

Congressional disclosure forms covering 1992, released Friday, generally express broad income categories rather than exact amounts. But there are interesting nuggets throughout.

Travel money: House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia reported spending 49 days on the road last year at the expense of political and business groups.

Odd jobs: Rep. Dan Miller (R-Fla.) sells snakes and tarantulas through his wholesale fish and reptile business. He made between $15,001 and $50,000 on it last year.

Extra income: Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) help make ends meet by renting out the basement of their Washington homes.

Capital gains: House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri sold a prime piece of vacation property for up to $250,000.

Charge it: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s wife, Victoria, had an outstanding balance of $15,001 to $50,000 on her Neiman-Marcus charge account, despite the Massachusetts Democrat’s salary of $130,000 and more than $2 million in blind trusts.

Big bucks: Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), a businessman in his first year in the Senate, earned more than $200,000 in salary and $1 million in capital gains last year.

Little bucks: Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) earned only $33,622 as a state senator and reported no assets or investments.

Speaking fees: Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas reported $64,100 in speaking fees. The honorariums, which lawmakers once could keep, must now go to charity. But the money must still be itemized.

California’s Senators

From the disclosure forms of California’s two senators.

BARBARA BOXER

* Earned income: $129,500 (received House salary last year)

* Major assets: Boxer listed stock and bond holdings in 85 companies and funds, shares in four partnerships investing in real estate and venture capital, most worth between $15,000 and $50,000.

* Major sources of unearned income: Of her stock and bond holdings in 85 companies and funds, each produced less than $5,000 and most yielded $200 or less.

* Major liabilities: none.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN

* Earned income: $52,208 (paid $18,705 for serving part of last year in the Senate)

* Major assets: Feinstein reported a $1 million-plus share of a San Francisco office building; two paintings together worth $500,000 to $1 million; and securities held in a blind trust worth $100,000 to $250,000.

* Major sources of unearned income: She received $15,000 to $50,000 from securities held in a blind trust.

* Major liabilities: Two mortgages on rental properties worth $100,000 to $250,000 each, held by Wells Fargo Bank.

Source: Congressional financial disclosure forms