Center for Public Integrity Study: Power Trips

Power Trips: How private travel sponsors gain access to Congress (HT: Drudge Report):

In the summer of 2005, the Center for Public Integrity, Northwestern University's Medill News Service and American Public Media began examining disclosure documents for about 23,000 privately funded trips taken by members of Congress and staffers over a 5½-year period. While some of these trips no doubt were educational, others appeared to be thinly veiled attempts by special interests to influence lawmakers and their advisers.

The study is quite an impressive, investigative journalism undertaking. The only thing that's missing from the site is the raw data the Methodology page alludes to. A reply email from project manager Jim Morris states that the raw data should be available by the end of June.