Good afternoon. I am Bradley Gordon, Director for Policy and Governmental Affairs of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. I am honored to appear before you to discuss rules for privately-financed congressional travel. The American Israel Educational Foundation, a supporting educational foundation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is a non-profit 501©(3) organization with the mission of providing educational programming about the US – Israel relationship. It strives to provide qualitative and balanced educational symposia not only for members of Congress, but also for academics, policy makers, journalists, students and the public at large.

We strongly believe in pre-approval of privately-financed congressional trips by the Committee, along with rules requiring greater transparency, accountability, and disclosure. We commend the Committee for fulfilling these requirements in its most recent advisory. We believe the model outlined in that advisory upholds the key principles I just mentioned, so that the Committee may in fact successfully exercise its vital oversight role.

The Middle East is an area where the vital interests of the United States are at stake, and AIEF’s trips focus on critical foreign policy and national security issues confronting America and that are before Congress, and provide members of Congress with an irreplaceable first-hand perspective on issues important to American policy in the Middle East. These include countering the threats of proliferation and terrorism emanating from the Middle East, joint US-Israel programs that address these and other threats, and developments towards creating a process of peacemaking between Israel and her neighbors.

A typical AIEF trip will include meetings with the top political leadership of Israel, with opposition political leaders across the political spectrum, senior military officials, academics, senior Palestinian officials, and journalists – both Arab and Israeli,The trips also include visits to important historic, cultural, and religious sites that help explain Israel’s unique history and provide a necessary context for both the continuing conflict there and the national psyche of Israel.

Current Rules

Since the House and Senate rewrote the rules concerning privately-funded travel some ten years ago, AIEF has been scrupulous about following all the rules. First, we create a very rigorous educational program on the ground that meets if not surpasses Congressional requirements. Second, we work closely with Members of Congress and their staffs to provide them in advance and after the trip all the information they need for approval and disclosure requirements. Within weeks of each trip, we provide the Members’ offices with all the cost information they need for filing official disclosures.

Considerations for New Rules

Here are some basic principles to consider as you undertake to write new rules:

1. Increase disclosure, transparency and accountability. There should be more disclosure to the Ethics Committee both in advance and after the trip. A well-defined preapproval process is essential. AIEF also thinks it is important to publicly disclose information about the trip after the trip is complete. We believe Members of Congress and their staffs participating in educational trips are helping to fulfill their mandate as responsible legislators exploring some of the most complex issues of the day.

2. Insist on disclosure, but not micromanagement. Absolutely disclose the program, all its participants, the funding sources—as you now require under the current Committee advisory, rather than devising overly formulaic rules and putting the onus on the organizations undertaking these trips. We also believe that trip programs need to be judged in their totality. The Committee should be understanding that itineraries are dynamic. Many changes take place even during the trip—meeting times get changed, some meetings inevitably get cancelled as others are scheduled. Over all, such changes should not affect the purpose of the trip.

3. Ensure security and privacy before the trip. Just as AIEF believes that no one undertaking legitimate educational trips should have any problems publicly disclosing information about the trips once they are concluded, we believe that such information should be held in confidence by the Committee until then. We recognize the tension between public disclosure and security when traveling to troubled regions. We believe that full advance disclosure to the Committee is in order, but that such detailed disclosure to the public should be made after the fact, given the potential impact on the security of Members of Congress traveling abroad. Certainly when going to a region of conflict—but not limited to such circumstances—it is very important not to reveal the proposed itinerary of the trip in advance. .

4. Keep the rules clear and simple. The rules should be simple and easy to follow. It benefits no one if the rules are so complicated that outside organizations have a difficult time understanding or following them.

Again, we believe that the Committee has fulfilled these requirements in its most recent advisory and has devised a model that assures more disclosure, transparency, and accountability, and has done so with relative simplicity.

Thank you.