A business association-funded advocacy group, Center Forward, has been sending House members and their congressional staffers on luxury retreats this year to meet with corporate lobbyists and executives. While the centrist group touts itself as building bipartisanship, none of the Republican House members who went on its junkets this year, or had their staffers attend, voted against the GOP budget reconciliation bill that scraped through the House along partisan lines in recent votes.
Last month, Center Forward sponsored a luxury trip to London for at least nine House members, some of their family members, and senior staffers, according to gift travel disclosures. The bipartisan trip to meet with business executives, fintech lobbyists, and U.K. government heads took place from June 14–19, when the House was between weeks in session. That week, the Senate Finance Committee was releasing crucial legislative text that further cut state Medicaid funding in the GOP “megabill," which stands to strip health insurance from 17 million Americans by 2034.
The House members stayed at the five-star hotel InterContinental London Park Lane in Mayfair on the trip, which was billed as promoting economic growth with Europe and discussing trade, health care, and other issues between England and the U.S.A. The agenda included a welcome dinner with former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair on the importance of bipartisanship, a meeting with a cryptocurrency industry trade group promoting stablecoin company Ripple, and a session on data privacy with Apple, among other stops.
At least five House Democrats and four House Republicans joined the trip, according to disclosures filed so far and photos posted on LinkedIn. Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) took the Center Forward junket with his spouse, in travel valued at nearly $29,000. The congressman’s Bluesky account, which is active, makes no mention of the Center Forward trip abroad last month. Also flying to London was Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.), the Battleground Leadership Representative of the House Democratic Caucus and a member of the New Democrat Coalition, along with her adult son, their trip valued at nearly $24,000.
Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), vice chair of policy for the New Democrat Coalition, crossed the pond with more than $11,000 in sponsored travel. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), ranking member of two House subcommittees and a New Dem, attended with her spouse, in travel valued at more than $23,000. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), a New Dem who is the ranking member of the House Committee on the Budget, appears in several Center Forward photos on LinkedIn from London. Several House staffers like legislative directors or chiefs of staff accompanied them, and more House members were invited, according to congressional disclosures.
