WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 
How the mood has changed since the days when the House Republican revolutionaries of 1994 seemed so contemptuous of foreign travel that Representative Dick Armey, the majority leader, once proclaimed: "I've been to Europe once. I don't have to go again." 

In the wake of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, it seems that almost everybody who is anybody in Congress is touring the world's hot spots and war zones. And few are criticizing the trips. The road warriors include past presidential candidates and possible future ones. Just as nine senators, led by Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona, wrapped up a weeklong trip to Afghanistan and neighboring nations this week, another bipartisan delegation, of six senators, was taking off under the leadership of the majority leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Their destinations: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and possibly Afghanistan. 

As he prepared for a long flight home, Mr. Lieberman said in a phone call from Oman, "It was a very important and valuable trip for all of us." The senator, who plans a speech at Georgetown University next week setting out his own vision for fighting terrorism, said it had been "just a wonderful thrill" to be able to thank members of the military in person. 

While some lawmakers favor group tours, others disdain them. 

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, left on Wednesday for his own trip to Afghanistan. 

"He's going over for 10 days," said Mr. Biden's spokesman, Chip Unruh, "and I think he's going to get to see a lot more and is more mobile as an individual on his own." 

Members of the House are also on the move. While Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, is in the Pacific rim, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the minority leader, is taking a a bipartisan delegation through the Middle East, with an itinerary including Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. 

One group of House members, among them Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, and Peter Deutsch, Democrat of Florida, made news in Israel this week when they canceled a meeting with the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, because of the arms-laden ship that the Israelis say was destined for the Palestinian Authority before they seized it. 

Some students of Congress say that in these turbulent times, the travel helps keep lawmakers engaged in the world and bolsters the balance of powers between Congress and the executive branch. 

"It's especially important now," said Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, "because in a time of quasi-war and crisis, when power tends to gravitate to the White House, it's really important that members feel confident about their own knowledge so as to play a constructive role in deliberations back home." 

And if lawmakers show up on camera near the troops, so much the better politically. 

Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who helped draft the Contract With America, which the House Republican class of '94 ran on, said, "Foreign travel in 1994 was the easiest way to defeat a member of Congress, particularly if they went to an exotic and warm location." By contrast, he said, "today, traveling to a war zone indicates that you're on top of the issue and that you're involved in solving a problem." 

Groups that usually track junkets as a waste of taxpayer dollars are also making distinctions. Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said of travel to Afghanistan, "In some ways maybe if we had members over there 10 years ago, we would have understood the situation a little bit better." 

Mr. Schatz was not so accepting, however, of the presence of an array of Congressional aides at an aviation conference in Hawaii. 

"Maybe this aviation issues conference is valuable," he said, "but Hawaii in the winter, you've got to ask some questions." 

Still, Hawaii seems an exception in this period between Congressional sessions. Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, reported from India that she had had meetings with a number of senior officials there on a visit that had been planned before the escalation of tensions with Pakistan. 

Those wondering about Congressman Armey, meanwhile, may find merit in his consistency. The majority leader, who plans to end a House career of nearly two decades at the close of the year, is home in his district. "Armey's in Texas," said his spokesman, Terry Holt."Armey hasn't taken any trips." 
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