Replication Data for: Gift Travel in the U.S. House of Representatives

Members of Congress take more than 2,000 trips sponsored by private organizations and interest groups every congress. Utilizing a new data set of gift travel from 2007 to 2019 and interviews with former members of Congress, current and former congressional staffers, and staffers from interest groups that fund trips, we attempt to answer two core questions about this increasingly frequent behavior. Why do members take privately sponsored trips and what types of groups are driving this behavior? We argue that members of Congress take trips because they believe it makes them more effective legislators by exposing them to real-world consequences of their policy decisions and forcing them to build relationships with their fellow members. Trip sponsors, alternatively, seek to persuade and build relationships with members of Congress that ultimately shape their legislative coalitions. We find that trip-taking is associated with greater legislative effectiveness, in particular for Democrats, and that the provision of policy-specific information is a valuable benefit from taking these trips.

每届国会任期内，美国国会议员会接受由私人组织与利益集团赞助的逾2000次出行。本研究依托2007至2019年的礼品差旅（gift travel）全新数据集，以及对前国会议员、现任与离任国会幕僚、赞助差旅的利益集团幕僚的访谈资料，旨在针对这一愈发频繁的行为解答两个核心问题：其一，国会议员为何会接受私人赞助的差旅？其二，哪些类型的团体在推动这一行为？我们提出，国会议员选择参与差旅，是因为他们认为这类出行能够让自身接触到政策决策的实际影响，并促使其与同僚建立联系，从而提升作为立法者的履职效能。而差旅赞助方则旨在游说议员并与其建立联系，最终借此塑造自身的立法联盟格局。本研究发现，参与差旅与更高的立法效能存在显著关联，这一效应在民主党议员群体中尤为突出；同时，获取针对性的政策信息是参与这类差旅的一项重要收益。