Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995                   TAG: 9506230076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: VIRGINIA   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

BOUCHER'S '94 TRAVELS: FAR AT OTHERS' EXPENSE

Boucher, D-Abingdon, was the most well-traveled among Virginia's 13 members of Congress, according to recently released conflict-of-interest forms for 1994.

Seven of the 13 reported taking reimbursements for trips worth more than $250. The forms also require representatives and senators to disclose outside income, financial holdings, securities transactions, debts and substantial gifts.

Richmond Republican Thomas J. Bliley, chairman of the Commerce Committee, traveled to Florida; South Carolina; Greenbrier, W.Va.; and Williamsburg at the expense of industry groups. He recently placed his assets in a blind trust after reports that he holds stock in companies affected by his committee.

Reps. James Moran, D-Alexandria, and Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax County, journeyed to Europe. Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, headed west to Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Boucher went to London for a forum on energy and telecommunications issues sponsored by the Ripon Educational Foundation.

The National Association of Broadcasters paid for his trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands, to speak about American communications law and policy.

He spoke in Indian Wells, Calif., at the expense of the United States Telephone Association. The same group financed Boucher's trip to Carefree, Ariz., to speak to executives of telephone companies.

W.R. Grace & Co. paid for Boucher to travel to Boca Raton, Fla., to speak to the company's executive officers on environmental legislation.

Sprint/United Telephone Co. and Keystone Energy Project, a think tank on energy issues, sponsored Boucher's trip to Colorado for speeches on competition in electricity markets and telecommunications law. He is on the board of directors of the Keystone group.

``I spend about 70 percent of my legislative time on the Commerce Committee dealing with communications issues. It is a speciality,'' Boucher said. ``I am invited to speak to groups all across the United States.''

The speeches are in the public interest because they help build coalitions and provide information about issues, he said. Because the federal government will not pay for members of Congress to make speeches, Boucher said, he has to go on the sponsors' tab.

``I don't consider it to be a personal opportunity in any sense. It's part of the public service,'' he said. ``I figure that I'm doing them a favor.''

Payne's trip to Wyoming was sponsored by the Jackson Hole Group, a physicians' organization. Payne serves on the Ways and Means Committee, which dealt with health care reform.

Democratic Sen. Charles Robb had free trips to Danville and to Nashville, Tenn.