c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Despite some perceptions, not all of the congressmen traveling at the expense of private interest groups get treated to rounds of golf and bottles of champagne.

Take the approach of the Faith and Politics Institute, a self-described nonpartisan, interfaith organization that helps “public officials stay in touch with their faith and deeper values as they shape public policy.”

Since 1991, the institute has offered prayer retreats and occasions for reflection for politicians of both parties, primarily on visits to historical sites of racial reconciliation like Birmingham, Ala., and Farmville, Va., where local officials closed schools from 1959 to 1964 rather than desegregate them.

The institute insists no specific policy is pushed.

“We are looking for these people who come to Congress with some goals and ideas and values and things they want to hold on to. And the system makes it very hard to hold on to those values,” said Sarah Fritz, the group’s executive director. “What we’re trying to do is encourage them to do the kinds of things they came to Washington to do.”

But the trips _ especially allowing lobbyists to help foot the bill and then accompany lawmakers _ have raised questions from some critics of privately funded congressional travel.

Until the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal this year, the institute sponsored trips charging $500 upfront to the politician guest, and then paying for the rest, Fritz said.

For example, in the case of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s 2004 trip to Alabama, the institute paid a bill of $1,436. Frist’s trip was one of just more than a hundred sponsored by the institute from 2000 to mid-2005 at a total cost of more than $100,000.

Final bills ranged from a $105.50 retreat for Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., to a $3,170 tab for Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., and a friend, according to a congressional trips database compiled by Medill News Service, the Center for Public Integrity and American Public Media.

Money for the trips was raised in part by corporate lobbyists from groups like Fannie Mae and Home Depot, who contributed to the institute’s annual fundraisers. Lobbyists were then able to buy their own personal tickets to go on the trips. That practice, however, and the policy of subsidizing congressmen’s costs, have been suspended.

Fritz stressed that lobbyists already knew many of the politicians, that they didn’t need the retreats to network, that they just “like being identified with something good.”

“No one has ever seen anybody lobbying an issue on one of our trips. It would be just absolutely untoward,” Fritz said. “This is a trip where we spend time in prayer and talking about forgiveness and reconciliation and that sort of stuff.”

Fritz conceded that some of the group’s retreats have been to pleasant destinations, such as Santa Barbara, Calif., but “are entirely for spiritual development.”

But Naomi Seligman Steiner, deputy director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, questioned the institute’s policy if lobbyists foot any portion of the bill and are allowed to tag along.

“It sounds like there are good missions …,” Steiner said. “But the lobbyists have a specific agenda. … They’re not going on the trip because they want to go to Birmingham. They are going on the trip because they want one-on-one time with the congressman. I think that they’re getting face time that others aren’t afforded.”

The institute changed its policy on lobbyists this year in the wake of the Abramoff scandal, Fritz said. For the time being, lobbyists are not welcome, and the congressmen will be asked to pay in full for their travel.

But Fritz said the institute would not be averse to returning to a policy permitting participation by lobbyists.

“You know how politics is,” she said. “When something becomes controversial like this, people stay away from it, and we don’t want people to stay away from our trips.”

KRE/JL END LEVY

Editors: To obtain photos of Fritz and trips to Birmingham and Selma, Ala., go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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