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PUBLIC DISCLOSURE

What is public disclosure.

Members, officers, and staff of the U.S. House of Representatives are required by certain House Rules and federal statutes to file official documents on travel, income, gifts, etc. and to make this information available to the public as Public Disclosure documents. These documents are filed with the Clerk of the House and are available from the Legislative Resource Center, B81 Cannon House Office Building, during normal office hours. The telephone number is (202) 226-5200. For information about documents or materials available for public inspection, please select a topic from the following list:

Reports and Filings

Financial Disclosure Reports include information about the source, type, amount, or value of the incomes of Members, officers, certain employees of the U.S. House of Representatives and related offices, and candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Reports of certain expenditures for all official foreign travel by Members and staff of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Information on the contents of unsolicited mass communications distributed by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Reports on travel-related expenses incurred by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are reimbursed by non­government sources and charitable contributions made in lieu of honoraria (a payment for services that does not have a set fee).

Reports on any legal expenses incurred by a candidate or Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

View the names of the board members and staff of the Office of Congressional Ethics who have signed an agreement to not be a Congressional candidate until 3 years after their service as a board or staff member has ended.

Information concerning departing Members, Officers, and certain covered House employees previously notified regarding statutory post-employment restrictions on lobbying and other activities and the beginning and ending dates of those restrictions.

View cost estimates prepared by the Congressional Budget Office.

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House Members and employees often receive invitations to travel, both in their official and personal capacities.  Except as the House gift rule (House Rule 25, clause 5) otherwise provides, such travel expenses are a gift to the Member, officer, or employee.  Like any other gift, travel expenses are subject to the basic gift prohibitions – including the prohibition against soliciting a gift – and they may be accepted only in accordance with the provisions of the gift rule.  Therefore, before accepting travel, a Member, officer, or employee should exercise special care to ensure compliance with the gift rule and other applicable laws, rules, and regulations.  For questions regarding travel, please contact the Committee’s Office of Advice and Education.

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August 9, 2019

Congressional Travel Rules

By Caralyn Esser and Craig Holman

Read the .PDF of Congressional Travel Rules

Travel by Members, Senators and congressional staff are subject to specific requirements described in the Rules of the House of Representatives and the Standing Rules of the Senate. Usually the travel regulations are similar for both houses of Congress, but the House and Senate separately approved rules governing privately-sponsored travel with minor differences.

According to the rules, travel expenses usually include transportation, lodging, food and refreshments, [1] but not expenditures for entertainment or recreational activities. [2] The travel rules are distinguished from the gift rules largely by geographical radius around the Capitol or a Member’s home district. Within a 35-mile radius of the Capitol or home district, the gift rules dominate. Outside that 35-mile radius, many of the gift rules, such as limits on expenditures for meals and hospitality, are superseded by the travel rules. [3] (Occasional travel expenses within the 35-mile radius are permitted for giving speeches.)

Types of Travel

Seven types of travel are governed by congressional rules:

• Travel in connection with the individual’s official duties that is paid for by a private source;
• Travel entirely unrelated to official duties that is paid for by a private source;
• Travel entirely unrelated to official duties that is paid for by a personal friend;
• Travel paid for by the Federal Government, or by a state or local government;
• Travel paid for by a foreign government or an international organization;
• Travel for a political purpose that is paid for by a political organization; and
• Official travel paid for or authorized by the House or

All seven types of travel are subject to different sets of regulations that are summarized below.

I.A.   Officially Connected Travel Paid by a Private Source – General Requirements

Privately-sponsored travel for officially-related purposes is the type of travel that had been most commonly subject to abuse. This is where private entities – corporations, unions and other special interest groups – provide free transportation, meals and lodging for Members, Senators and staff for “officially-connected duties,” such as giving a speech to constituents, participating in a conference, or attending a fact-finding trip. Until passage of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (S. 1), these trips often used to be little more than junkets, as lobbyists made use of the laxer travel rules to wine and dine Members, Senators and congressional staff on behalf of paying clients. Such abuses were the source of the new House and Senate travel rules restricting the role of lobbyists and lobbying organizations on officially- connected trips.

Today, a Member, Senator, or staff may accept travel expenses to attend a meeting, speaking engagement, fact-finding trip or similar event related to official duties, from a private source only if:

a) The private source is directly and immediately associated with the event and the location of the event bears a relationship to the officially-connected purpose of the trip. [4] When a non-profit organization, for instance, pays for officially-connected travel, the organization must (1) be publicly disclosed as a trip sponsor on the applicable travel disclosure forms and (2) be directly involved in the event. If the organization pays the travel expenses with donations that are earmarked, either formally or informally, for the trip, each such donor is deemed a “private source” for the trip and must be disclosed and intimately involved in the event. In terms of location, the rules distinguish between travel to locations arranged without regard to congressional participation, which is deemed presumptively reasonable, as opposed to travel arranged largely for congressional participation, which must be located at a site directly related to official business.

b)  The private source is not a registered lobbyist or a registered foreign agent. [5]

• The prohibition against accepting travel expenses from a registered lobbyist, an agent of a foreign principal, or a lobbying firm applies even when the lobbyist, agent or firm will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist
• “Registered lobbyist” is any person registered under the [6]
• “Foreign agent” covers any person registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, usually foreign governments or entities supported by foreign governments. [7] However, the Members, Senators and staff of Congress may accept some specific travel expenses from foreign agents subject to regulations of other types of travel – travel paid for by a foreign government or an international organization outside the United
• Important additional requirements restricting the role of lobbying organizations are discussed

c)  Travel expenditures cover brief time periods. [8]

• For the House it is limited to four days total for domestic trips and seven days for trips outside the United States, excluding days taken in whole or in part in traveling to and from the United
• For the Senate the limits are three and seven days respectively (in both cases time of traveling is excluded).
• A Member, Senator or staff can travel beyond the day limits if he or she is participating in consecutive but distinctive trips financed by different organizations, or he or she is willing to extend the trip at his or her own expense. In the latter case, the Member, Senator or staff may still accept return transportation.

d) The private source offers to cover only transportation, lodging and related expenses that are necessary to accomplish the purpose of the trip, and thus it may not always be proper to accept expenses for the full three-, four- or seven-day period. [9] The new House and Senate rules further stipulate that travel expenses should be “reasonable.” Reasonable expenses are defined as expenses commensurate with other attendees at an event that is organized without regard to congressional participation (e.g. academic conference), or expenses compatible with per diem rates for trips organized largely for congressional participation (e.g. fact-finding trip).

e) Travel expenditures regarding entertainment or recreational activities are generally not permitted. [10] However, Members, Senators and staff may accept such expenditures if they are provided to all attendees as an integral part of the event, or alternatively if they conform to the gift

f) No more than one relative accompanies a Member, Senator or employee of Congress at the expense of the private sponsor. [11] A Member, Senator or staff may accept payment from a private sponsor for the expenses of one relative only, not a spouse and a child. However, the Member, Senator or staff can be accompanied by other individuals at his or her own expense.

This provision has recently come under closer scrutiny for its tax implications. The IRS requires that payments by a private source for the travel of a family member, if the family member is not serving a bona fide business purpose, as additional income to the recipient, subject to tax. Public Citizen filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that many, if not all, Members, Senators and staff routinely fail to report this income and pay taxes on it. The congressional ethics committees have no rule or advice to Members, Senators and staff of the potential tax implications of family travel paid for by a third party.

g) After each trip taken by a Member, Senator or staff a travel disclosure form that lists the expenses by the private source must be completed, signed and filed with the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate. [12] The form must include good faith estimates of the transportation, lodging, meal and other expenses paid, set out separately, and a determination that such expenses were ‘necessary’ and related to the individual’s official duties. In the House, this disclosure form must be filed within 15 days of returning from the trip. In the Senate, the disclosure form must be filed within 30 days of the trip. Furthermore, Members, Senators and officers, as well as employees who file a Financial Disclosure Statement, must also disclose each such trip on Schedule VII of their annual financial disclosure

I.B.   Officially Connected Travel Paid by a Private Source – Specific Requirements Relative to Different House and Senate Rules

a) Trips sponsored by lobbying organizations [13]

1.In the House , a private entity that retains or employs a lobbyist is prohibited from sponsoring officially-connected travel , except in the following limited circumstances:

• The trip is pre-approved by the ethics
• The trip is for a one-day event, exclusive of travel time and one night’s
• A second night’s stay may be permitted if it is necessary to accomplish the purpose of the one-day
• An institution of higher education, even if it hires a lobbyist, is exempt from the one-day trip.

2.In the Senate , registered lobbyists and the entities that employ them are prohibited from sponsoring officially-connected travel, except in the following limited circumstances:

• The trip is pre-approved by the ethics committee
• The trip is necessary to participate in a one day (travel time excluded) meeting or speaking engagement, fact-finding trip or similar
• A second night’s stay may be permitted if it is necessary to accomplish the purpose of the trip.
• A 501(c)(3) charity, even if it hires a lobbyist, is exempt from the one-day trip

b)  Lobbyist participation in travel events [14]

• In the House , registered lobbyists are prohibited from participating in travel events, except for de minimis Even for permissible one-day events sponsored by a lobbying organization, a lobbyist may participate in meetings at the destination of the trip, but the lobbyist cannot accompany the Member or staff on the travel; organize, finance or arrange the trip; or participate in more than a negligible fashion in the event. This restriction on lobbyist participation does not apply to an event sponsored by an institution of higher learning. Nevertheless, registered lobbyists and agents of foreign principals may not directly finance any trips.
• In the Senate , registered lobbyists may not plan, organize, arrange or participate in officially-connected trips except for de minimis Even for permissible one-day events sponsored by a lobbying organization, a lobbyist may participate in meetings at the destination of the trip, but the lobbyist cannot accompany the Senator or staff on the travel; organize, finance or arrange the trip; or participate in more than a negligible fashion in the event. This restriction on lobbyist participation does not apply to events sponsored by a 501(c)3 charity. However, the restriction does apply to events sponsored by charities. Nevertheless, registered lobbyists and agents of foreign principals may not directly finance any trips.

c)  Transportation of Members and Senators by corporate jets [15]

• In the House , Members may not use official, personal or campaign funds to pay for the use of privately-owned aircraft on trips, unless the aircraft is owned by the Member, a family member or a personal friend. Since privately-sponsored trips are considered reimbursement to the House, a private entity may not supply a private jet at no cost for an officially-connected trip. A sponsor may pay for up to business-class transportation on commercial aircraft or rail. A private source may provide charter fare or first-class fare only if it can be demonstrated necessary to accommodate a disability, security concerns, or other exceptional
• In the Senate , Members and employees are required to pay full market value for airfares (charter rates) for flights on private jets not operated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), except if the aircraft is owned or leased by the Senator involved or an immediate family member of the Senator (including an aircraft owned by an entity that is not a public corporation in which the candidate or an immediate family member of the candidate has an ownership interest), so long as the Senator does not use the aircraft more than the candidate’s or immediate family member’s proportionate share of ownership allows. The term `immediate family member’ means, with respect to a Senator, a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, husband, wife, father-in-law, or mother-in-law.

d)  Formal approval of trips [16]

• In the House , all privately-sponsored trips for Members and staff must be pre-approved by the House ethics committee . The committee must certify both the sponsor and the nature of the trip prior to travel. The sponsor must submit written certification that it will abide by all the conditions and restrictions regarding the payment, arranging and participation in the event. Members and staff must also receive written approval that the trip complies with the restrictions on duration, location and purpose of congressional travel. Pre-approval authorizations are made immediately available to the public. Post-travel disclosure of expenses is required within 15 days after the traveler
• In the Senate , all privately-sponsored trips for Senators and staff must be pre-approved by the Senate ethics committee. The committee must certify both the sponsor and the nature of the trip prior to travel. The sponsor must submit written certification that it will abide by all the conditions and restrictions regarding the payment, arranging and participation in the event.

Senators and staff must also receive written approval that the trip complies with the restrictions on duration, location and purpose of congressional travel. Pre-approval authorizations are made immediately available to the public. Post-travel disclosure of expenses is required within 30 days after the traveler returns.

II.   Travel Unrelated to Official Duties and Paid by a Private Source [17]

A Member, Senator or employee of Congress may accept transportation, lodging, meals and other benefits unrelated to official duties paid for by a private source if it is related to outside business or employment. This type of travel is not as strictly regulated as officially connected travel – it is not subject to time limits, the limitation that only one relative may accompany, or the prohibition on recreational activities.

But two important restrictions still apply:

• The travel benefits may not have been offered or enhanced because of the official position of the Member, Senator or staff
• The benefits must be identical to those customarily provided to others in similar business circumstances.

Unlike officially-connected travel, the travel expenditures unrelated to official duties should not be reported on the 15-day travel disclosure forms filed with the Clerk of the House or the 30-day travel disclosure forms filed with the Secretary of the Senate. But unofficial travel funded by a private source that exceeds $250 in value in a calendar year must be reported on Schedule VII of the annual Financial Disclosure Statements of Members and those employees required to file an annual statement.

III.   Travel Unrelated to Official Duties and Paid by Personal Friend [18]

This kind of travel is subject to regulations imposed on other unofficial travel paid for by a private source (see above). In addition, if travel expenditures exceed $250 in value they may not be accepted on the basis of personal friendship unless the ethics committee issues a written determination that the personal friendship provision applies. Therefore, Members, Senators and congressional staff should submit an advance written request to the Committee. This request and the Committee’s response are confidential. Usually, travel paid for on the basis of personal friendship that exceeds $250 in value should be reported on the annual Financial Disclosure Statement but under some circumstances the Committee may waive the reporting requirement.

IV.   Travel Paid for by Federal, State or Local Government [19]

The gift rules of both houses of Congress allow accepting travel from any governmental entity in the United States. This type of travel is not considered a gift and does not have any regulations regarding trip duration, spouses or children. Such trips don’t have to be disclosed on either the travel disclosure forms or on annual Financial Disclosure Statements.

V.   Travel Paid for by a Foreign Government or International Organization [20]

The U.S. Constitution prohibits Members, Senators and employees of Congress from receiving gifts including travel, from a foreign state or its representative without the consent of Congress. That’s why Congress has consented to the acceptance of travel by the officials only in limited circumstances – under the provisions of the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act (FGDA) and the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act (MECEA). Both acts contain very complicated and distinctive sets of regulations. The basic features include:

Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act:

• Any travel paid for by a foreign government under FGDA regulations must relate directly to the official duties of the Member, officer, or
• That Act defines the term of “foreign government” to include not only foreign governments per se but also international or multinational organizations whose membership is composed of units of foreign governments, and any agent or representative closely affiliated with such a government or organization while acting as such.
• The trip must take place totally outside of the United States to be consistent with the interests of the United States and be permitted by the Standards
• Travel expenses for an accompanying spouse or dependent may be accepted.
• Travel is usually subject to the seven-day limit when it is taken in connection with a trip that is otherwise paid for with private
• Such travel expenses should be disclosed within 30 days after leaving the host country in a special form filed with the ethics committee, but they should not be reported on the annual Financial Disclosure

Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act:

• This Act applies to travel related to cultural exchange programs that finance visits and interchanges between the United States and other
• Members and congressional staff may accept travel expenses from a foreign government in order to participate in MECEA programs approved by the Director of the United States Information
• Such travel expenses are not considered gifts and are to be paid by the sponsoring government, not by any private
• Under MECEA, the traveling Member, officer or employee may not accept travel expenses for a spouse or
• Travel expenses associated with approved exchange cultural programs do not need to be disclosed on the travel disclosure forms, but they must be reported on the annual Financial Disclosure Statement.

VI.   Travel Paid for by a Political Organization [21]

A Member, Senator or employee of Congress may accept travel expenses provided by a political organization or party committee in connection with a fundraising or campaign event sponsored by that organization. These are campaign trips in support of a candidate or party committee. If expenses are paid for by the political organization, it is considered either an in-kind contribution from the political organization to the campaign or a party expenditure. The travel expenses may also be paid for or reimbursed by the campaign itself. These expenses are not to be reported on the travel disclosure forms. The expenses need be reported on the annual Financial Disclosure Statement of the Member or staff only if that travel is not filed with the Federal Election Commission.

VII.   Official Travel Paid for or Authorized by the House or Senate [22]

Official travel usually includes travel paid for out of Congressional funds, as well as the travel of Members, Senators or staff abroad as part of an official delegation. All official travel must be paid for or authorized by the House or Senate. A private source generally may not pay any portion of the expenses of a trip having an official purpose. Official travel is not to be reported either on the travel disclosure forms or on the annual Financial Disclosure Statement. There are surprisingly few regulations, and very little oversight and public disclosure, of official taxpayer funded travel.

VIII.   CODEL Reforms

In May of 2010, the former speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi issued new limits for House members. The new limits restrict members of the house from flying business-class unless the scheduled flight time exceeds 14 hours. Members of committees must seek authorization for travel for oversight purposes. The Speaker made a point to emphasize that DOD aircraft support is extremely limited and stipulated that it be requested through the Office of Interparliamentary Affairs and not the DOD directly. Finally, the new rules designate a quarterly filing period in which travel expenditures must be disclosed to the Clerk of the House [ 23 ].

Prepared by Bryan Kappe, Public Citizen (May 2011)

Making Government Work

Protecting Democracy : Ethics & Lobbying Reform , Money in Politics

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Congress examines how to address aviation workforce shortages

More people are flying again but staffing shortages in the aviation industry are making it harder to keep up with demand.

“Culture is the biggest barrier to women in aviation - it’s the hardest to change,” said Joanne “Jo” Damato, National Business Aviation Association.

This is something Jo Damato knows personally. She wanted to be a pilot growing up.

“Because of my gender, I was not permitted to fly all of the flight school’s airplanes. Because of my gender,” said Damato.

During a congressional hearing, Damato emphasized the need to diversify the aviation workforce to include more women and minorities.

She believes the new FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 will help alleviate some barriers. The law creates a new Women in Aviation Advisory Committee at the Department of Transportation aimed at improving recruitment.

“We need to make improvements to attract women and minorities to aviation to show them more examples of see it, be it,” said Damato. “Give them mentoring opportunities to understand the resources they can take advantage of especially funding being one of them.”

Damato also believes there should more access to information about aviation careers.

“We need a one stop shop national website to be the destination and central source of information for pursuing a career in aviation,” she said.

The new bill takes effect amid major staffing shortages in roles you don’t always notice when flying - such as aviation maintenance technicians.

Union leaders say these workers operate and maintain thousands of systems used for air traffic controllers.

And when there aren’t enough of them on duty, your trip could be impacted.

“The consequences of insufficient technicians staffing manifested itself in increased restoration times during an outage or air traffic delays. It also causes inadequate shift coverage for technicians which means we don’t have the right person available to resolve a crisis when it occurs,” said Dave Spero, national president for the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO.

Some parts of the aviation industry aren’t experiencing staffing shortfalls.

Airlines for America, which represents most of the major US carriers, said in a statement that passenger and cargo airlines are experiencing the largest workforce in more than 20 years. It has more than 800,000 workers.

Full statement from Airlines for America:

U.S. passenger and cargo airlines employ their largest workforce in more than 20 years, more than 800,000 workers.

More people are flying than ever before, and U.S. airlines have been hiring aggressively across the industry – pilots, flight attendants, gate agents, etc. – for a couple of years to accommodate the increasing demand. Airlines have been implementing new programs to recruit and initiatives to retain the workforce, and U.S. airlines are paying record high wages.

However, the ATC staffing shortage is directly impacting operations across the system. At this time of record travel demand, U.S. airlines cut back their schedules in congested areas to accommodate the ATC shortage at the expense of travelers who are seeing fewer flight options in those markets. We have been sounding the alarm on the shortage of air traffic controllers for more than a year.

The DOT Inspector General’s June 2023 report reinforced our view saying that the FAA has made “limited efforts to ensure adequate controller staffing at critical air traffic control facilities” and the agency “lacks a plan” to address this critical issue. Last year, the FAA netted just six new controllers while needing nearly 3000. The FAA’s system of hiring and training is fundamentally broken if it takes this long to hire and train controllers.

A4A has been supporting efforts such as the FAA Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) program that allows prospective controllers while they are in college, allowing them to begin their on-the-job training in actual control towers once they graduate, and were pleased when Secretary Buttigieg and the FAA announced their support for the revival of the program.

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Democrats Seek Criminal Investigation of Justice Thomas Over Travel and Gifts

The senators said the Supreme Court justice’s failure to disclose lavish gifts and luxury travel showed a “willful pattern of disregard for ethics laws.”

By Maya C. Miller

Reporting from Washington

Two top Democratic senators have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of Justice Clarence Thomas for possible violations of federal ethics and tax laws.

Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland last week asking that he appoint a special counsel to investigate Justice Thomas’s failure to disclose lavish gifts , luxury travel , a loan for a recreational vehicle and other perks given to him by wealthy friends.

The request further intensified efforts by Senate Democrats to scrutinize Justice Thomas’s conduct at a time when they are trying to force Supreme Court justices to comply with stricter ethics and financial disclosure rules.

“We do not make this request lightly,” the senators wrote in a joint statement. “Supreme Court justices are properly expected to obey laws designed to prevent conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety and to comply with the federal tax code.”

“No government official should be above the law,” they added.

Specifically, the senators asked that a special counsel investigate whether Justice Thomas violated federal ethics and tax laws by failing to disclose as income the $267,000 he received in forgiven debt for a luxury R.V.

The senators wrote that Justice Thomas had “repeated opportunities” to explain his failure to disclose the gifts to the Senate Finance Committee, of which Mr. Wyden is the chairman, as well as the Judiciary Committee’s panel on federal courts, which Mr. Whitehouse leads.

They also accused Justice Thomas of showing a “willful pattern of disregard for ethics laws,” behavior that they said surpassed that of other government officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department for “similar violations.”

A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maya C. Miller covers Congress and is a Times Fellow , a program for journalists early in their careers. She is based in Washington. More about Maya C. Miller

Our Coverage of Congress

Here’s the latest news and analysis from capitol hill..

Biden’s Age Concerns: President Biden has yet to do what many Democrats on Capitol Hill said he must to show he is up to remaining in the race. But so far, they are doing nothing to nudge him aside .

The Aging Senate: Senators have had plenty of practice watching colleagues hold stubbornly onto their positions of power as they grow old. None wants to lead a public call  for  Biden to withdraw.

Merrick Garland: The House defeated a Republican measure that would have imposed a $10,000-a-day fine on the attorney general  for refusing to turn over audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with a special counsel.

Justices Alito and Thomas: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, introduced articles of impeachment  against the two justices , accusing them of improperly failing to disclose gifts from wealthy benefactors and to recuse themselves from certain cases.

​​McCarthy’s Revenge Tour: Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker, has spent much of his time, energy and money since leaving Congress trying to defeat the Republicans who cost him his gavel .

GARM Exposed: House Judiciary Report Says Ad Coalition Likely Broke Law To Silence Conservatives

Brent Scher

A congressional investigation has uncovered overt political bias in the leadership of an advertising coalition that’s being used to control online speech, according to a  House Judiciary Committee report  released on Wednesday ahead of a hearing on whether advertisers are violating federal competition laws.

The report on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, accuses the group of attempting to influence what content appears online by starving disfavored content, or even entire platforms, of advertising dollars needed to survive. Internal emails obtained by the committee found that GARM’s leadership strategized how to use the coalition against news outlets, including The Daily Wire, with opposing views from its leadership.

“GARM and its members discussed a strategy of blocking certain news outlets like Fox News, The Daily Wire, and Breitbart News,” the report states, pointing to an email from a top executive associated with the coalition stating that he “hated their ideology and bulls**t.”

One of the lead organizations in the coalition, GroupM, the world’s largest media buying agency, admits in emails that The Daily Wire is “on our Global High Risk exclusion list, categorized as Conspiracy Theories.”

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus  Ben Shapiro will testify  in the committee’s hearing on GARM, which will take place later on Wednesday. Last year, Shapiro described GARM as part of “a network of global elites who have created a universal framework full of guidelines and ratings designed to enforce ‘approved’ narratives and punish disapproved ones.”

GARM was formed by the World Federation of Advertisers in 2019, and was embraced as a “flagship project” of the World Economic Forum. Its stated goal is to create a “common understanding” in the advertising industry of “what harmful and sensitive content is” as well as “where ads should not appear,” basing it all on the importance of “brand safety” for its members.

The report exposes the political bias of Rob Rakowitz, GARM’s leader and co-founder, who in one email complains about people “advocating for freedom of speech online,” and about “extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution.” Rakowitz also criticizes the fact that the Constitution was written “by white men exclusively.”

“For an organization reliant on speech and persuasion in advertising, GARM appears to have anti-democratic views of fundamental American freedoms,” the report states, citing Rakowtiz’s emails.

Other entities targeted by GARM include Elon Musk’s Twitter, now X, after it was initially purchased by the tech billionaire. The report states that GARM tried to direct all of its members — corporate giants like Coca-Cola and Unilever who together account for 90% of global advertising dollars — to “stop all paid advertisement” on the platform after Musk purchased it. The report states that GARM “bragged about” the fact that Twitter was “80% below revenue forecasts” after its effort.

GARM also worked to pressure Spotify over Joe Rogan’s podcast, the report shows, specifically over the host’s claims that young, healthy people didn’t need a COVID vaccine. Rakowitz, GARM’s leader, admits in private emails that threats like the one it made to Spotify “gets us into hot water by way of anticompetitive and collusive behaviors.”

The committee report concludes that “GARM likely violated federal antitrust laws,” claiming that it found “direct evidence” that it was “demonetizing certain viewpoints to limit consumer choice” and therefore harmed consumers.

“Colluding to suppress voices and views disfavored by the leading marketers at the world’s largest companies and advertising agencies is core to GARM’s founding principles,” the report states.

In the emails between Rakowitz and the GroupM executives, Joe Barone and John Montgomery, a plan appears to be hatched to closely monitor The Daily Wire in hopes that they find a reason to censor the outlet — it’s a strategy that was used to censor Breitbart, the GroupM executive explains.

“There is an interesting parallel here with Breitbart,” Montgomery wrote in an October 2021 email after he was asked about The Daily Wire. “Before Breitbart crossed the line and started spouting blatant misinformation, we had long discussions about whether we should include them on our exclusion lists. As much as we hated their ideology and bulls**t, we couldn’t really justify blocking them for misguided opinion. We watched them very carefully and it didn’t take long for them to cross the line.”

He then recommends taking the same approach to The Daily Wire. “We should watch them carefully to make sure they don’t stoop below the GARM floor,” Montgomery writes, before being told by his colleague Barone that The Daily Wire was already on GroupM’s “Global High Risk exclusion list.”

Though the emails show Rakowitz discussing plans to censor specific outlets with GroupM, the committee report says he denied doing so in a transcribed interview with congressional investigators.

“When Mr. Rakowitz was asked by the Committee during his transcribed interview whether he discusses with GroupM its list of news outlets that are worthy of monetization, he denied doing so,” the report states. Rakowitz told the committee that he “won’t get into those conversations to keep myself compliant with our competition law policy.”

In addition to Shapiro, the CEO of GroupM, Christian Juhl, will also be a witness, Breitbart  reported  on Monday.

The report outlines specific instances where GARM members used the coalition to get involved in U.S. elections — in one series of emails in October 2020, an executive for Unilever, which is based in the United Kingdom, tries to convince Facebook to take down a Donald Trump ad it viewed as misinformation. When Facebook explained that it has different standards for political speech, GARM leadership privately seethed.

“Honestly reprehensible,” Rakowitz wrote in an email to the Unilever executive, in reference to Facebook’s decision not to censor Trump.

The president of Unilever, a consumer goods giant that sits on GARM’s steering committee, will also testify at the hearing.

The message to Facebook, the emails obtained by the committee show, was that GARM wanted it to do more censorship — Rakowitz specifically wrote that the censorship efforts exhibited during COVID “should be the North Star” and urged it to do the same level of content moderation for elections.

“In other words, GARM pushed Facebook for coordinated action around the upcoming elections similar to the actions the platform took during the COVID-19 pandemic to censor speech,” the report states.

The committee report concludes that while any of these companies is free to advertise wherever they please, the collusion facilitated through GARM put it in violation of the law.

“Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court described collusion as “the supreme evil of antitrust.’ Today, this description remains true,” it states. “If collusion among powerful corporations capable of collectively demonetizing, and in effect eliminating, certain views and voices is allowed to continue, the ability of countless American consumers to choose what to read and listen to, or even have their speech or writing reach other Americans, will be destroyed.”

Read the full article here.

Watch CBS News

Passenger complaints about airline travel surged in 2023

July 5, 2024 / 5:59 PM EDT / CBS/AP

U.S. Transportation Department officials last year were up to their necks in complaints submitted by air travelers over everything from delays and cancellations to accommodations for disabled passengers.   

The agency  reported  on Friday that it received nearly 97,000 submissions in 2023, 91% of which were complaints. That's up from about 86,000 total submissions, including complaints, inquiries and opinions in 2022. 

The department said there was such a high volume of consumer grievances filed against airlines and ticket agents last year that it took until this month to sort through the filing and compile final figures.  

The figure marks the largest number of air travel complaints by consumers since 2020, when airlines were slow to give customers refunds after the coronavirus pandemic shut down air travel. That year, the department received roughly 103,000 complaints, according to PIRG.

The increase in complaints came even as airlines canceled far fewer U.S. flights — 116,700, or 1.2% of the total, last year, compared with about 210,500, or 2.3%, in 2022, according to FlightAware data. However, delays remained stubbornly high last year, at around 21% of all flights.

So far this year, cancellations remain relatively low — about 1.3% of all flights — but delays are still running around 21%.

More than two-thirds, or 67,661, of submissions last year dealt with U.S. airlines, but a quarter, or 24,991, covered foreign airlines. Travel agents and tour operators were the reason for 3,162 complaints.

Disability-related grievances rose by more than a quarter compared with 2022, with some incidents making headlines, including a paraplegic Delta Air Lines passenger in December 2023 who claimed he was forced to crawl to his Delta Air Lines seat after no one was available to help him board. Earlier that year in November, a video went viral of American Airlines crew members mishandling a passenger's wheelchair, sparking some people with disabilities to speak out about their negative travel experiences. 

Though they would like to travel by plane, many disabled Americans forego air travel out of fear of not being sufficiently accommodated by airlines, according to an April  study from the Century Foundation. 

Complaints of discrimination, while small in number, also rose sharply. Most were about race or national origin.Airlines receive many more complaints from travelers who don't know how or don't bother to complain to the government, but carriers don't release those numbers. 

The Transportation Department said it is modernizing its complaint-taking system, which the agency says will help it do a better job overseeing the airline industry. However, the department now releases complaint numbers many months late. It did not issue figures for the second half of 2023 until Friday.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• United States Department of Transportation

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What is Project 2025? The Presidential Transition Project explained.

The detailed plan to dismantle and reconstruct the government laid out by  conservative groups  known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project has critics up in arms over its " apocalyptic " and " authoritarian " nature.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., led an effort to create the more than 900-page  "Mandate for Leadership,"  published in April 2023, reimagining the executive branch and presented a plan to overhaul several federal government agencies, including the FBI, for the country's next conservative president to follow.

More: Project 2025 head says 'second American Revolution' will be 'bloodless if the left allows'

According to the Project's website, the playbook provides a governing agenda and a lineup of people ready to implement it to "rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left." It includes a domestic and  foreign policy  agenda, a list of personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook.

"It is not enough for conservatives to win elections," Project 2025  said on its website . "With the right conservative policy recommendations and properly vetted and trained personnel to implement them, we will take back our government."

Project 2025's Director is  Paul Dans , who served as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management chief of staff in former President Donald Trump's administration. Although it mentions Trump by name, the handbook does not directly assume the Republican party's presumptive nominee will be the one to carry out its agenda.

What is in Project 2025?

The mandate attacks several policies that former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden instituted, including  student loan forgiveness  and  Obamacare . It simultaneously calls for expanded executive power for the commander-in-chief while criticizing what Project 2025 members perceive as overreaches by the Biden administration.

"Presidents should not issue mask or vaccine mandates, arbitrarily transfer student loan debt, or issue monarchical mandates of any sort," the plan reads. "Legislatures make the laws in a republic, not executives."

The playbook calls for the reinstatement of a  Trump executive order  augmenting a president's power to hire and fire federal officials by replacing civil servants with political appointees throughout government.

It also seeks to repeal aspects of the  Affordable Care Act , urge the Food and Drug Administration to reverse the  approval of abortion pills , and further empower Immigration and Customs Enforcement to  deport undocumented immigrants .

The plan also specifically addresses LGBTQ+ issues and attacks "radical gender ideology." In addition to calling for an end to the Department of Education, it suggests legislation that would forbid educators from using transgender students' names or pronouns without written permission from their guardians. It also appears to oppose same-sex marriage and gay couples adopting children by seeking to "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family."

Project 2025 generates concern

Project 2025 has received substantial criticism from Democrats, including  Representative Jasmine Crockett , D-Texas, who called out the controversial plan during a congressional hearing last month.

"I don't know why or how anybody can support Project 2025," Crockett said. "In the United States of America, dictatorships are never funny, and Project 2025 is giving the playbook for authoritarianism as well as the next dictator to come in."

Progressive Democrat U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts called it a "far-right manifesto" in a  post on TikTok . The Biden campaign captioned a video detailing Project 2025, stating it "needs more attention."

Rachel Barber is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY, focusing on politics and education. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, as @rachelbarber_