This report discusses the statutory and congressional rule structure under which Members of the House and Senate, under an exception to the gift Rules, may generally accept from some private sources—other than registered lobbyists or registered foreign agents— necessary travel expenses, including transportation, food and lodging, for travel "in connection with" their official duties, such as for fact-finding trips, conferences or symposia, under certain circumstances and limitations. The receipt of "gifts" by Members and staff of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, including the receipt or acceptance of payment or reimbursement of travel expenses from outside, private, third-party sources, is generally restricted by the operation of federal statutory law, as applied by the House and Senate Rules. Under these provisions, Members of Congress and congressional staff are prohibited from soliciting or accepting gifts from any private sources unless expressly permitted by an exception in the congressional rules. Members and staff may generally not accept private gifts, reimbursements, or payments of their expenses, other than from their relatives and certain long-term personal friends, when the value of a gift is $50 or more (or when multiple gifts of under $50 from the same source aggregate $100 or more in a calendar year). There do exist exceptions to the gifts prohibitions under both House and Senate Rules which allow for the acceptance of some travel expenses from outside, third parties for what is characterized as "officially connected" travel by Members, officers and employees of the House and Senate in specifically defined and limited circumstances. Provisions of federal law currently provide the general standard and prohibition on the receipt of "gifts" from certain private sources. 5 U.S.C. § 7353, states: § 7353. Gifts to Federal employees (a) Except as permitted by subsection (b), no Member of Congress or officer or employee of the executive, legislative , or judicial branch shall solicit or accept anything of value from a person— (1) seeking official action from, doing business with, or (in the case of executive branch officers and employees) conducting activities regulated by, the individual's employing entity; or (2) whose interests may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the individual's official duties. While subsection (a) of this law provides the general prohibition on the receipt of gifts from interested parties, subsection (b) of the statute expressly allows the appropriate "supervising ethics office" to promulgate rules or regulations regarding the acceptance of gifts by officers and employees, and to provide such "reasonable exceptions as may be appropriate," whereby officers or employees may accept such gifts pursuant to those rules. The "gift" Rules of the House and the Senate thus generally operate as the regulatory scheme setting out the standards for Members, officers and employees of the House and Senate, respectively, as to the prohibitions and the exceptions to the restrictions upon acceptance of private gifts and reimbursement. The Rules of the House, at House Rule XXV, clause 5, and of the Senate, at Senate Rule XXXV, generally prohibit the receipt by Members and staff of any gifts of $50 or more in value from any private source (and those gifts of $10 or more aggregating $100 or more in a year from the same source), unless specifically permitted by one or more of the various exceptions specifically provided in the Rules. As noted above, one of the more common exceptions is for gifts from relatives or from (or exchanged between) certain long-term, personal friends of the Member or congressional staffer. Additionally, there are exceptions in the House and Senate Rules for the receipt (but not the solicitation) of certain travel expenses from private sources in specifically defined and limited circumstances. Under congressional rules, the threshold consideration in determining the propriety of accepting private reimbursement or payment of expenses for travel is the characterization of the purpose of the particular travel in question. Travel may be for strictly official, congressional business; may be for campaign related or other "political" reasons; may be to participate in a charitable fund-raiser; may be in relation to a Member's or a Member's spouse's outside private business endeavors; may be for purely personal purposes such as recreation, vacation or pleasure; may be for "officially connected" reasons, such as fact-finding tours or conferences; or may be some combination of these. In such cases, differing rules, prohibitions, standards and restrictions may apply depending on the nature and purpose of the travel. For example, travel for strictly official, core congressional business may not be paid for or reimbursed at all by outside, private third parties, as the House and Senate Rules on unofficial office accounts prohibit the establishment or functional operation of what used to be called congressional "slush funds," that is, private contributions or private funds paying for official congressional operations or activities. Expenses for travel for campaign related or other "political" reasons may be paid for or reimbursed from campaign accounts subject to campaign finance laws and regulations (but generally in relation to federal elections may not be accepted from corporations, labor unions, national banks, or government contractors under federal campaign laws), and when and if paid for by other outside, private parties must conform to federal campaign finance laws. Some travel and certain expenses for charitable fund-raisers may be accepted by Members participating in such fund-raising events for the charity, under particular limitations of the House and Senate Rules. Reimbursement or payment for travel in relation to a Member's or a Member's spouse's outside private business endeavors may generally be accepted subject to guidelines, while the payment by outside, private sources for travel for purely personal purposes, such as recreation, vacation or pleasure, would generally be prohibited as an impermissible personal "gift" when $50 or more in value. The travel that has recently raised several questions has been the acceptance of private payment or reimbursement of "officially connected" travel by Members and staff. Both the Rules of the House of Representatives and the Rules of the Senate expressly permit, as an exception to the general gifts restriction, the payment or reimbursement by certain outside, private sources of the "necessary" travel expenses of Members for events such as conferences, fact-finding tours, symposia or lectures which, although not core congressional functions, are "in connection with" or sufficiently related to a Member's official duties. The wording of the House and Senate Rules on this subject are substantially identical, other than as to the permissible duration of such trips, which is limited in the House to four days for domestic and seven days for foreign travel (excluding travel days), and in the Senate to three days for domestic travel and seven days for foreign travel (also excluding travel days). The exception to the gift prohibitions in the House and Senate for the receipt of reimbursement or payment of expenses for "fact-finding," and similar types of officially-related or officially-connected activities has been one of fairly long-standing under congressional rules. The first restrictions on gifts with specific monetary limitations and detailed guidelines were enacted in the House and Senate in 1977, and under these Rules, provisions were made for Members and staff to accept certain travel expenses and reimbursement for such "fact-finding" events. In the House of Representatives in the 95 th Congress, a Select Committee on Ethics was established to provide advisory opinions and guidance on the new restrictions on gifts. The Select Committee noted that although "there has been some criticism regarding abuses of 'fact finding tours' in the past," it would not be in the public interest to prohibit Members from accepting necessary travel expenses for "fact finding events or activities which have a legitimate purpose directly related to the official duties of the Congress." The Committee noted that "although a Member of Congress may render some personal services in the course of a fact-finding event, the primary purpose of the trip is for the Members, officers, or employees to become better informed regarding subject matters closely related to their official duties," and found: Therefore, the Select Committee holds that necessary expenses paid by an organization sponsoring a fact-finding event are exempted from the limitations of Rule XLIII, clause 4 [now XXV, clause 5], provided that the fact-finding event or activity is directly related to the official duties of the Member, officer, or employee. Any such reimbursement or payment of travel expenses aggregating over $250 in value from one source would be subject to disclosure .... This public disclosure will guard against the potential abuse of converting this kind of activity from an official business purpose to that of personal pleasure or entertainment. Gifts of that nature exceeding $100 [now $50] in value were clearly intended to be prohibited .... To protect against potential abuses, the Select Committee narrowly defined "fact-finding" tours and activities to exclude reimbursements or provision to a Member of transportation by a corporation to his home district "on the grounds that he would 'tour' the corporate facilities there," and such things as "ship-launchings" or inaugural airline flights, which were considered more in the nature of promotional events. The Committee further emphasized that Members may only accept necessary expenses incurred in a fact-finding activity, and may not accept even entertainment, or expenses or reimbursements for entertainment, which, among all other reimbursements, expenses or things of value beyond necessary expenses , would be considered gifts to the Member subject to the specific dollar limitation on gifts: Additionally, the Select Committee emphasizes that the definition of a "fact-finding event" must be interpreted narrowly. House Rule XLIII, clause 2 [now XXIII, clause2] puts Members on notice that not only the "letter" but also the "spirit" of House Rules must be adhered to.... The intended definition of a fact-finding event would also not extend to expenses incurred during such an event which are unrelated to the specific fact-finding activity.... Similarly, this exemption for fact-finding activities applies only to necessary expenses (transportation, food, lodging) and not to entertainment. Thus, a Member of Congress, whether traveling on a fact-finding tour or under any circumstances, may not accept gifts of entertainment ... [beyond the dollar limitation].