House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calls for an end to private‑funded travel—while his own staffers have piled up more than $32,000 in perks
WASHINGTON – Speaker‑designate Hakeem Jeffries has spent the last few months urging fellow Democrats to curb the number of trips paid for by outside groups, citing conflicts of interest and the cost to a public budget. But a look at his own travel authorizations shows that his aides have flown and dined in luxury on over eight privately funded trips that total $32,493, according to records filed with the House Clerk.
“Jeffries “is always calling a number of members about [stopping] it – and they’re not doing it,” one Democratic source told the Post.” The record‑keeping, which traces trips from London to Ireland to Las Vegas, has been surprisingly detailed, noting venues ranging from the Abbey Road studios in London to the National Park Service offices in Yellowstone.
In July, a senior aide visited London’s famed Abbey Road Studios, toured the BBC studios, dined in the upscale Mayfair district, and met with senior British diplomats. The Global Women’s Innovation Network paid $3,500 for the entire visit, as noted in this year’s travel disclosures. “We will hear success stories of female sellers who’ve grown from side hustles to full‑fledged fashion brands,” the meeting agenda recorded, listing a stop at Depop’s headquarters.
Another aide took a “tour of Yellowstone National Park with the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service” in June, with trips also taking him to Bozeman, Montana and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Records also show staffers flying to Palo Alto, California, as well as to Ireland and Israel. When outside groups pay for these trips, the staff must submit a rationale to the House Ethics Committee, though explanations can be vague—for instance, an Ireland trip funded by the US‑Ireland Partnership for Growth, in which members “met with government officials and business leaders in Cork and Dublin to discuss matters of tax and trade.”
Jeffries hasn’t responded to a request for comment, but he will need a full House vote to become Speaker if Democrats win a majority. His brief period as a potential primary threat ended when left‑wing New York City Councilman Chi Ossé withdrew support after not securing backing from the Democratic Socialists of America.
Other House members’ overseas travels
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Rep. Tom Suozzi (D‑SI) disclosed a privately funded trip to Sea Island, Georgia in March worth $1,369. He also traveled to Geneva, Switzerland last year—with his wife—on a $18,932 package that covered travel, lodging and food. A bipartisan policy organization, the Ripon Society, paid for the trip, while the Suozzis covered the return airfare themselves. Suozzi and several other lawmakers attended a similar event in Vienna, Austria the previous November.
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Several aides of Brooklyn‑based members—Yvette Clarke (D‑Brooklyn) and Nydia Velázquez (D‑Brooklyn/Queens)—were flown to Las Vegas for a Consumer Technology Association event. The trip coincided with a year that saw Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez draw headlines after spending nearly $50,000 in campaign funds on hotels, dining and travel in Puerto Rico.
Why these trips matter
Craig Holman, a lead analyst at watchdog group Public Citizen, said, “When it’s privately financed it always raises red flags about what that source wants from the public officials. We’ve tried to rein in privately financed travel as much as possible.”
“If any private special interest wants to provide a friend in Congress with a pleasurable experience, they don’t fly them to Alaska in the middle of winter or into a war zone,” Holman added. “They fly them into some nice pleasant place that is a vacation spot. That alone highlights how private special interests really are trying to provide inside favors and influence to Members of Congress when they provide travel.”
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