No more ‘wiggling out’ of disclosing free trips overseas for Delaware lawmakers

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Delaware lawmakers have moved swiftly to address an issue WHYY News exposed this spring: the practice of members taking free trips to Taiwan and Israel without reporting them as gifts in their annual financial reports.

The state House and Senate voted without any dissent in recent days to explicitly require all “travel expenses” of $250 or more paid for by a third party to be disclosed to the state’s Public Integrity Commission. Travel costs include transportation, lodging, entertainment, food and beverages.

WHYY News reported in April that since about 2010, a revolving group of roughly five lawmakers has traveled to Taiwan every year on weeklong trips, with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States footing the bill. None of the lawmakers ever reported the free travel, however, according to reports dating back to 2020 that WHYY reviewed, and interviews with participants.

Some cited advice from the commission that the trips did not have to be reported as “gifts” in the annual financial report but none could produce documentation of such guidance. Instead, they said they simply followed the advice of fellow lawmakers in deciding not to disclose what many called a fact-finding mission to the home of a U.S. ally.

In addition, one of five lawmakers who went on a free trip to Israel last year, courtesy of the Consulate General of Israel in New York, didn’t report the $6,500 gift until after WHYY News inquired about his nondisclosure.

Nor did Attorney General Kathleen Jennings report free trips since 2022 to South Africa, Colorado and Arizona that a legal trade group paid for, WHYY News reported last year. The commission had advised her that the free trips didn’t have to be reported.

Under longstanding Delaware law, Delaware’s 62 lawmakers and about 300 other state government officials, including judges, must disclose any gift worth more than $250.

The law defines a gift as “a payment, subscription, advance, forbearance, rendering or deposit of money, services or anything of value unless consideration of equal or greater value is received.“ Gifts from close relatives do not need to be reported.

Under the state’s Code of Conduct, required filers must also list creditors, investments, sources of income and business interests. WHYY News has obtained all the reports filed for 2025.

The updated law, however, removes any wiggle room for lawmakers and other state officials when it comes to travel paid for by any entity except for the state government.

State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, a Bear Democrat who sponsored the bill, said she’s gratified fellow lawmakers voted in favor of more transparency.

“Your voters and constituents deserve to know who’s covering your travel, what countries you’re going to, what excursions” state officials are taking, Wilson-Anton said. “So I think it’s reasonable. I think it’s good government and I’m glad that it passed.”

The “travel expenses” provision, proposed by Rep. Jeffrey Spiegelman, a Middletown Republican who didn’t disclose his own two free trips to Taiwan, was added to Wilson-Anton’s bill that requires the financial reports to be posted on the commission’s website for anyone to view. Currently, someone who wants to inspect a financial report would have to file a Delaware Freedom of Information Act request to get it and wait up to 15 days to obtain it.

“People have a right to know who is gifting their legislators money, trips, gifts. And it should be easily accessible,” Wilson-Anton said.

“The travel piece wasn’t my idea because I’ve been in office now for almost six years and whenever someone covers my travel, I see that as a gift. I think that’s a very reasonable interpretation, but my colleagues found that to be confusing.”

Wilson-Anton’s quest for more transparency began last year after she wanted to see the financial reports of some fellow lawmakers “because they were behaving in ways that seemed like they had conflicts of interest and I heard rumors that they were making money in certain industries and so I went to look,” she said.

She was surprised to learn she couldn’t just view the reports online, as the public can do with reports by registered lobbyists.

Spiegelman, who also went to Israel and did report that trip after getting advice from the commission to do so, said the law needed to be updated.

“Sometimes we find things within the code that need to be clarified through the legislative process for the sake of transparency and the good of the state,” Spiegelman said. “This was one of those things.”

Commission chairman Ron Chaney, who had told WHYY News in April that going forward, lawmakers should disclose all free trips as gifts, nevertheless said he supports the change.

“We believe this policy will bring much-needed clarity to the situation by establishing a consistent standard,” Chaney said in a statement.

Transparency advocate says lawmakers have long ‘abused’ law

Transparency advocate Amy Roe of Newark, who had initially brought Rep. Bryan Shupe’s failure to disclose the Israel trip to the attention of WHYY News, countered that it’s ridiculous that several lawmakers and Jennings didn’t disclose free trips as gifts under a law she contends is crystal clear.

“I think it’s irrelevant because it’s already required,’’ Roe said. “So the fact that they name it out as travel expenses doesn’t change the fact that it’s something of value given by somebody and should be reported.

“I don’t see this as changing anything. They shouldn’t have been able to wiggle out of it before. The way that the law was written before was extremely clear. The fact that we’re talking about our elected officials wiggling out at all is just disgusting. Where are they holding themselves accountable? They’re not.”

Roe charged that lawmakers and other officials have “abused” the law for years and faulted the commission for not holding members accountable. Filing a false report can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor that’s punishable by up to a year in prison, but no lawmaker has ever been charged with such a crime.

Roe also said all gifts and travel of any value should be reported to the public.

“The fact that it maintains the $250 level is very problematic,’’ she said of the bill that just passed. “If you’re going to get travel expenses paid by anybody, that number should be zero.”

John Flaherty, spokesperson for the Delaware Coalition for Open Government, agreed that any gifts or travel expenses of any amount need to be reported.

Flaherty also dubbed the revamped law a victory for transparency.

“The website provision is going to make it possible that everybody will be able to police the trips and gifts that the elected and public officials make,” Flaherty said.

“Madinah deserves a lot of credit for reacting to the abuses that have occurred regarding the gift reporting,” he added, “and I’m hopeful that once it gets on the internet, there’ll be a lot more people out able to accurately police the financial reports of our elected and public officials.”