A database compiled by Medill News Service in partnership with American Public Media's Marketplace program and PoliticalMoneyLine shows that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., took three privately funded trips in 2005, and Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who represents Beaufort County, has taken one trip so far this year. South Carolina's junior senator, Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has not taken a privately funded trip during 2005.
Graham selects trips that have relevance to the committees he serves in the Senate, those that relate to issues he has separately been working on and those that may better inform him, said spokesman Kevin Bishop.
"You judge each trip on its merits and if your time allows you to go," Bishop said. "Senator Graham is a very busy man."
Sony paid Graham's expenses for a weeklong trip to Honolulu in January -- one that cost $3,793.
Travel costs were $2,443 and lodging was $1,350. According to Bishop, the airfare was $2,068 and the remainder of travel expenses was devoted to ground travel.
On travel Web site Kayak.com, roundtrip fares for a comparable weeklong trip from Washington to Honolulu with 14 days advance booking are as low as $795.
Bishop said tickets often are more expensive for Graham because he, like other members of Congress, has a job that makes it difficult to predict a schedule in advance -- and that would allow for less costly tickets that take advantage of low rates.
Even though the trip to Honolulu took place during a Senate recess, Bishop said, Graham did not have the ability to book far in advance because he still could have been required to travel on short notice.
Later in January, Graham was the keynote speaker at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's 2005 winter convention in La Quinta, Calif. The association paid $260 for Graham's lodging.
In April, Graham spent two days in New Orleans and addressed the Southeast American Board of Trial Advocates. The group covered $295 in travel costs and $195 for lodging.
By comparison, Wilson has taken only one privately funded trip in 2005 -- but it wasn't cheap.
Generally, Wilson takes trips only if they're arranged by the House Armed Services committee and allow him "to visit U.S. troops and learn more about the war on terror," spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said in a statement.
But in February, Wilson attended a three-day strategy conference hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation.