Reply #96: ND's GOP legislators block requiring disclosure of trips paid for by interest groups including ALEC [View All]

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In North Dakota, lawmakers don't have to disclose such trips as long as they're not financed by taxpayers. Lawmakers often are eligible to claim their daily pay when they are on legislative business, too, and Stenehjem said he did claim his $158 per day on some of his trips.

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The Republican-controlled Legislature has defeated several proposals in recent years to require lawmakers to disclose trips financed by outside groups. One bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Marcellais, D-Belcourt, would have required lawmakers to disclose the destination and purpose of any outside trip related to public business, as well as the money spent on them.

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In 2003, 16 GOP lawmakers skipped a day of the Legislature to attend a Las Vegas conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-supported organization of conservative state lawmakers.

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Stenehjem's foreign trips have mostly been arranged by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, based in Centerville, Mass., a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation that puts on educational programs for legislative leaders. The programs are usually affiliated with universities.

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