By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

CONGRESSWOMAN Madeleine Z. Bordallo may face an investigation by a congressional ethics committee after Republican congressmen charged that she and four other Democratic lawmakers visited South Korea allegedly using an improper source of funding.
Two Republican House members who participated in the trip to South Korea but abruptly ended their visit are now considering taking the matter to the House ethics committee.
According to Political- MoneyLine, which tracks congressional travel, James Sensenbrenner, R-Wi, and Rep. Phil English, R-PA, cut short a privately-paid for trip to Seoul, South Korea after they noticed that the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission event was also sponsored by the Korea Foundation, an organization that had been determined by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to be an improper source of funding.
The purpose of the Nov. 26 to Dec. 2, 2006 trip was to participate in the 36th U.S.-Japan Legislative Exchange Program and the U.S.-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Legislative Exchange Program.
Upon discovering the event was also sponsored by the Korea Foundation, Sensenbrenner stated he immediately informed “the rest of the U.S. delegation of this violation.”
In a letter to chairman Doc Hastings of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Sensenbrenner outlined the situation and stated he and English immediately withdrew their participation in the program and returned to the U.S. on the next available flight, stressing that the Democrats continued with the program.
Aside from Bordallo, the other Democrats in the delegation were Representatives Jim McDermott, D-Wa, Eni Faleomavaega, D-As, Mike Honda, D-Calif, and Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tx.
Bordallo’s office has denied any wrongdoing, saying that all the travel plans made by the congressional delegation were legitimate.
Bordallo also stressed the trip’s importance to her mission of reviewing the ongoing realignment of U.S. military forces because this is relevant to Guam as the island positions itself as the U.S. military “tip of the spear” in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Korean situation has become especially relevant to Guam because of North Korea’s threat to U.S. military assets based on the island. A number of U.S. military units based in Korea are also in the process of being relocated to Guam.
Bordallo also stressed that it was the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission that sponsored her travel, which was reviewed by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct which ruled that the travel was in compliance with the regulations of the House of Representatives.
Korean-Americans likewise constitute a sizable part of Guam’s community and Bordallo only recently helped commemorate the 104th anniversary of the arrival of the first Korean immigrants to the U.S., praising the island’s Korean-American community for their many cultural and socio-civic contributions to Guam.
In California, Daniel Kohns, a spokesman for Democrat representative Mike Honda, has also stated that the House Ethics Committee staff members repeatedly told Honda’s office that the trip did not violate ethics rules.
The Associated Press likewise quoted Henry Nau, the trip’s coordinator, as saying that the Korea Foundation paid only the university staff’s travel expenses, not those of the lawmakers, and that the trip was cleared by the House Ethics Committee.
According to PoliticalMoneyLine, Sensenbrenner’s travel report indicated he had reimbursed George Washington University $5,832 for transportation costs as part of the $7,701 total trip cost. English also reported paying personally for the transportation costs, but not the $1,236 in lodging and other expenses. Bordallo reported the U.S.-Japan Legislative Exchange as the sponsor paying a total of $2,148, while McDermott reported the sponsors paid $5,062 but it did not include costs for Nov. 29 through 30.
Honda reported the trip sponsors paid $5,931 for his free trip, while Eddie Bernice Johnson reported the sponsors paid $7,116 for her free trip and Faleomavaega reported the trip sponsors paid $6,774 for his free trip.