San Benito’s Sacramento lawmakers got over $100k in free travel in 3 years    | BenitoLink

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Between 2021 and 2023, State Senators Anna Caballero and John Laird and Assemblymember Robert Rivas accepted $100,882 in sponsored travel from various special interest groups, visiting countries including Denmark, Iceland and the United Arab Emirates for up to a week.

California has strict rules on gifts, honoraria, travel payments and loans to its elected officials. They are limited to $10 in monthly gifts from registered lobbyists or lobbying organizations and, other than gifts from family members, cannot accept more than $590 a year from members of the general public. They cannot accept honorariums for making speeches, attending conferences, social gatherings or meetings, or publishing articles. 

However, there is no limit on some forms of sponsored travel. This includes travel for education and training, travel on official business, or travel that would not present a conflict of interest. 

According to California Government Code 87100, 87103, “A conflict of interest exists if a legislator uses their official position to influence a governmental decision in which they know they, an immediate family member or a business they are associated with have a financial interest.”

The figures come from downloadable spreadsheets published by CalMatters as part of an investigation into gifts, travel and outside income provided to Assembly members and senators from 2021 to 2023.

The CalMatters figures show John Laird, likely to be elected as the 14th District (which includes San Benito County) state senator based on the March 5 primary election results, topping Rivas’ 2022 total with $21,192 in sponsored travel to Egypt and Iceland. In 2023, Laird’s total came to $26,006, including trips to Mexico, Argentina, Canada and Denmark. The 14th district’s departing senator, Anna Caballero, did not declare any travel in 2022 but traveled in 2023 to Denmark, Dubai and Mexico City with $21,792 in sponsored trips.

In 2022, 29th District Assemblyman and Speaker of the House Robert Rivas and 13 other legislators accepted $213,000 in sponsored trips to Israel, paid for by the California Jewish Legislative Caucus (CJLC). Rivas’ share, which he declared as required by law, came to $13,820. It was one of five sponsored trips Rivas took that year, totaling $19,177, including a $3,623 trip to Anaheim and a $1,630 trip to Napa. 

CJLC was the second-biggest travel sponsor, offering trips for 12 assembly members and seven state senators. According to the CJLC website, in 2022, the year it sponsored Rivas’ trip, its legislative agenda was to “address issues like hate crimes, Holocaust education, homelessness, mental health, and access to justice.”

The biggest travel sponsor in 2022 was the California Foundation for the Economy and Environment (CFEE), which provided $375,000 in travel to 32 legislators. The group describes itself as an “independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to educating public and private sector decision-makers on solutions to California’s complex economic, environmental and social issues.” 

Its board of directors includes representatives from a wide variety of organizations, including labor unions, energy companies, environmental groups, scientists and tribal leaders.

According to a press release from Assemblymember Luz Rivas, who led the 2022 delegation to Iceland, the trip was an opportunity to “study carbon capture and sequestration techniques, geothermal energy development, and low-impact farming for innovative food products.”

According to a CFEE press release, the object of the Denmark trip was to “learn about innovations in offshore wind energy, carbon-neutral farming, bioenergy, and carbon sequestration.”  

BenitoLink has received no response from CFEE as to who accompanied the legislators to Denmark, but the San Francisco Chronicle reported that they were“representatives of energy companies, including Chevron, the Western States Petroleum Association, Southern California Edison and SoCalGas, and environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council.”

BenitoLink sent inquiries to Caballero, Laird, and Rivas with the following questions:

• What is your relationship with that organization? 
• What were the itineraries on each of those trips?
• What do you feel you accomplished or learned on each trip?
• Was any legislation proposed as a result of each trip?

Rivas’ Director of Communications Nick Miller, replied: “As an assemblymember and along with more than a dozen legislative colleagues, lawmakers met with Jewish and Palestinian leaders and explored opportunities for partnerships on key issues such as climate and technological innovation. A key goal and top priority of any trip is to develop and grow collaboration and connections that will benefit all residents of California.”

Richard Stapler, Laird’s chief of staff, said that on each trip, Laird received “first-hand knowledge” of offshore wind projects, carbon capture efforts, geothermal energy production, recycling and other environmental processes.

“Getting a direct look at projects like these allows the opportunity to better inform and enhance understandings and perspectives of energy and environment-related pieces of public policy,” Stapler wrote. “It allows an opportunity for legislators to ask questions of those who actually construct and operate these types of projects, further enhancing opportunities to learn and understand.” 

Neither Miller nor Stapler provided agendas or any information on legislation that may have resulted from the trips. 

Elisa Rivera, Caballero’s communications director, said the senator was part of a Senate delegation that represented the state of California at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, met with representatives from Japan, Canada, Australia, Israel and Spain, and “built partnerships to encourage other nations and parts of the world to adopt California policies.” She said Caballero’s trips to Denmark, Mexico City and Dubai included meetings with government officials, conversations with industry experts, union jobs and site tours.

Rivera offered a list of “partnerships established because of travel”:

• Government of Canada: hydrogen, carbon removal, housing and fuel cell development arising from the Senate delegation to British Columbia.
• Denmark and United Kingdom: education and partnerships built that resulted in a pyrolysis pilot project in California and information on building offshore wind and direct air capture projects in California to eliminate trash, using natural lands to sequester carbon and new advances in nuclear energy. This effort resulted in hosting the European Union’s Foreign Minister and the European Union’s Ambassador to the United States in Sacramento to continue our conversations on climate change policies and strengthening our Democratic institutions.
• COP 28 Dubai: Senate delegation trip to represent the state of California and the work we are doing in renewable energy and climate change. Building and maintaining relationships that can foster better technologies and create jobs in California. 
• Mexico: building relationships with Mexico’s top scientists in the climate change field to promote coordination on climate change policies. In addition, working to bring scientists to the district to educate constituents in Spanish on the impacts of climate change and local actions that can be taken.

Below is a list from CalMatters of all sponsored travel from 2021-2023, by year, sponsor, cost and destination, for Caballero, Laird and Rivas. BenitoLink added the total figures for each legislator’s trips.

Caballero:

 Laird:

Rivas

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