Moorhead Cancels Junket, Cites Budget Negotiations

Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), under fire for his plans to lead a congressional delegation on a Latin American junket that included a number of prime tourist attractions, canceled the trip Tuesday, saying it would be inappropriate to be away during critical federal budget negotiations.

Moorhead’s plans for the 16-day trip to Panama, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador drew rebukes from diplomats in Latin America who sent a cable condemning it as a needless junket at such a critical time.

Mixed in with meetings on copyright law were stops at attractions such as the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Argentina’s Iguazu Falls, and the Otavalo market in Ecuador.

Angry U.S. diplomats noted that Moorhead, four colleagues and their spouses were scheduled to fly north from Rio to Panama for dinner Jan. 19 and then head south the next morning to have breakfast and dinner in Quito, Ecuador. Seven and a half hours of sightseeing was scheduled between the two Quito events.

“The present itinerary provides more time for travel or sightseeing than work and substantive meetings,” the diplomats wrote. “Transporting five members of Congress and their spouses on an Air Force jet strikes us as an excessive and injudicious use of government resources.”

While defending the trip as official business, Moorhead, chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing copyright law, announced Tuesday that the trip was off--for now. State Department spokesman John Dinger said other lawmakers were also beginning to cancel their global travel plans after they were advised that the budget impasse had strained embassy resources around the world.

In all, 25 foreign trips had been planned by members of the House and Senate between last week and the middle of January. Such jaunts are commonplace during the year-end recess, but they drew particular criticism this year with the federal government partially shut and 280,000 federal employees home on furlough.

Other Californians whose trips have been affected by the budget standoff are Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), who dropped plans to go to Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Albania and Belgium until the budget impasse is broken, and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose upcoming trip to China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia is up in the air.

F. Allen Harris, president of the American Foreign Service Assn., which represents U.S. diplomats, said lawmakers do need to travel the world as part of their jobs, but he said that too many of the trips border on tourist adventures.

“This country, as a world leader, needs knowledgeable members of Congress with firsthand experience about how to conduct its foreign affairs,” Harris said. “However, we don’t need, at taxpayers’ expense, trips to Machu Picchu, Copacabana, Cuzco, Iguazu Falls and Otavalo in a two-week tour of Latin America.”

For his part, Moorhead said his subcommittee made the trip arrangements months ago and never planned to leave while the budget negotiators were still at the table. The retiring congressman insisted that despite the exotic stops--which he said he wasn’t responsible for--the trip was full of official business aimed at reducing copyright piracy in Latin America.

“There are certain parts of the world where we’re having a lot of problems with piracy, and South America is one of those areas,” Moorhead said. “Billions of dollars worth of products are illegally copied. That’s something we can’t afford to led slip. . . . This is definitely a working trip. Anyone who goes is going to work their tails off.”

There were meetings scheduled with the presidents of Argentina and Brazil, Moorhead said, and the delegation planned to discuss how to reduce the theft of pharmaceuticals, computer software and other protected products by Latin American firms.

A copy of the itinerary obtained by The Times shows business sessions with legislators in Chile, Brazil and Argentina; the Peruvian minister of trade and a variety of U.S. and Latin American corporate officers.

But there was also plenty of sightseeing planned.

On the schedule was a train trip from Cusco to Machu Picchu, a carnival show in Brazil, a police escort so Moorhead and his wife could visit an orphanage in Peru and a bus tour of the old city of Quito. The delegation was scheduled to stay at the Hotel El Libertador in Cusco, Peru; a Hyatt in Santiago; a Marriott in Buenos Aires and the plush Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro.

Among those who had planned to join Moorhead on the trip were Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee; Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), a senior member of the panel.

After receiving word from the Republican leadership that the budget impasse showed signs of continuing into next week, Moorhead said he decided to cancel the trip. He said the criticism was misplaced and did not lead to the cancellation.

In fact, if time permits, Moorhead said he would like to reschedule the Latin America trip for later in the year. “I’ve averaged less than one trip per year in all the years I’ve been in Congress so I’m not one of the big travelers,” said Moorhead, who led a trip to Asia last fall to discuss copyright issues there. “I think it’s important to get out of Washington from time to time.”

Raising some of the biggest objections to Moorhead’s travel plans were some of those who would have played host once he arrived.

Harris said new budget realities ought to put an end to the more frivolous congressional trips.

“Today’s downsized embassies do not have the resources for this kind of official tourism,” he said.