Nancy Pelosi has put ethics reform -- which at minimum means fewer gifts and junkets -- on her list of "first 100 hours" legislation. Jewish groups, the second-largest sponsors of junkets, are busy trying to craft an exemption for trips they sponsor to Israel. These are "educational trips", not junkets, they argue.
Perhaps, but they're also expensive perks. Randy Kuhl took one sponsored trip in his first term in Congress. It was an educational mission to Israel, he took his son, and it cost $16,758 for an eight-day trip . As I've posted before, Kuhl is squeaky-clean on finance issues, and this trip was above-board and properly reported. But it's still an expensive gift, and if Pelosi is serious, Kuhl will be one of the last beneficiaries of these kind of perks.
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Did you see the piece in Forward about all the junkets to Israel?
Yep - linked to it in the first paragraph...