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I
111TH CONGRESS
2DSESSION
H. R. 5957

To require that any local currencies used to provide per diems to Members and employees of Congress for official foreign travel for a fiscal year be obtained by Congress and paid for using funds appropriated for salaries and expenses of Congress for the fiscal year, to enhance the disclosure of information on official foreign travel of Members, officers, and employees of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 29, 2010

Mr. JOHNSONof Illinois introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Com- mittee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To require that any local currencies used to provide per diems to Members and employees of Congress for official foreign travel for a fiscal year be obtained by Congress and paid for using funds appropriated for salaries and expenses of Congress for the fiscal year, to enhance the disclosure of information on official foreign travel of Members, officers, and employees of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
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tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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•HR 5957 IH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.
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(a) SHORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
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‘‘Congressional Foreign Travel Reform Act of 2010’’.
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(b) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
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(1) The 56-year-old Mutual Security Act gov-
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erns the current procedures and reporting require-
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ments associated with the expending of foreign cur-
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rencies for foreign travel by members of Congress
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and their staffs.
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(2) A recent Congressional Research Service
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(CRS) memorandum finds that ‘‘there are no re-
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quirements regarding the disclosure of international
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travel by Members of Congress or their staffs that
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contain records of all international travel that might
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be taken.’’.
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(3) This memorandum also finds that—
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(A) the current travel disclosure require-
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ments ‘‘may be of limited utility’’ when trying
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to assess the amount Congress spends on for-
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eign travel;
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(B) some foreign travel disclosures ‘‘. . .
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identify annual expenditures for an entity, rath-
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er than quarterly,’’ as is required by the law;
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(C) some disclosures contain ‘‘. . . typo-
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graphical and mathematics errors’’;
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•HR 5957 IH
(D) the current disclosure requirements for
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Congressional foreign travel ‘‘. . . might raise
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questions about the accuracy of reported des-
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tinations, participants or expenditures’’; and
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(E) the current reporting requirements for
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Congressional foreign travel ‘‘. . . may reduce
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the suitability and reliability’’ of the following
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data: ‘‘number of trips taken, number of con-
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gressional travelers, destinations and the num-
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ber of times a destination was visited, purposes
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of travel, benefits of travel and the extent of ex-
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penditures for congressional travel.’’.
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(4) In April 2010 Roll Call reported that these
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travel ‘‘. . . accommodations are made by the State
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Department and billed back to a government ac-
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count that automatically refills itself and has no
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spending limit attached.’’.
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(5) In March 2010 the Wall Street Journal re-
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ported that while congressional rules require any un-
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used per diem received for congressional travel must
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be paid back, this rule is rarely followed.
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(6) The ‘‘Questions and Answers’’ section of
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the Official Foreign Travel Guide for the U.S. Con-
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gress advises Members of Congress that they ‘‘. . .
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