Late last month, some Vermonters were dismayed to learn that five representatives had recently traveled to Israel as that country’s guests, even as the state’s federal delegation joined a growing chorus of leaders accusing Israel of waging a genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.
The representatives and 245 other state lawmakers from around the country attended a conference that promised to offer an “in-depth exploration of Israel’s leadership, society, heritage and spirit of innovation,” according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headlined a slate of national leaders who addressed the attendees, and at least one government official urged the American legislators to pass laws barring boycotts, divestments or sanctions against the Jewish state. The ministry paid for the participants’ expenses: $6,500 per person.
Vermonters learned about the trip in part because a photograph of the representatives posing at a ceremonial tree planting in southern Israel circulated online after the foreign ministry shared it on social media.
If not for that, the trip might have gone unnoticed. Despite its high price tag and Israel’s effort to woo participants, neither Vermont’s lawmakers nor the foreign ministry were required to disclose anything about the trip or the gifts provided to make it possible, such as compensated airfare, hotel stays or meals. This is in stark contrast to disclosure requirements for campaign contributions or gifts from registered lobbyists, which donors must report and are readily accessible for the public to review.
The notable disparity in disclosure practices leaves Vermonters without a clear understanding about what powerful forces might be shaping their lawmakers’ decision-making while in office. It also raises questions about how the legislature has created exceptions when it comes to its own transparency and accountability.
There is currently no way for the public to know who is paying for their state representatives and senators to fly around the world or across the country in their official capacity — or even how many sponsored trips Vermont legislators take in a given session.
Legislators are permitted to accept such gifts as long as they follow the state’s code of ethics, which sets boundaries for all public servants around conflicts of interest, gifts, the use of state employment for personal gain and more.
The ethics code provides a strong framework for legislators to determine whether to accept gifts such as airfare or hotel stays, but the policy lacks key measures to provide transparency or give it teeth, according to Christina Sivret, executive director of the State Ethics Commission.
“We really seem to be stalled at a point where the legislature is willing to pass laws but not move to the next step where there’s actual accountability in tandem with those laws,” Sivret said.
This year was the first time that Israel’s foreign ministry paid for Vermont state legislators to visit, according to the ministry. But state legislators have accepted money from other outside groups to attend numerous conferences and speaking engagements around the world this year and in previous legislative sessions, reporting by Seven Days has found.
Traveling beyond Vermont’s borders gives legislators the chance to study best practices and bring back ideas that might work here at home, said Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (P/D-Chittenden-Central), who estimates she is one of the body’s frequent fliers.
“Why would we re-create the wheel if there’s something that’s working and functioning really well somewhere else?” Vyhovsky asked.
Vyhovsky, who was sworn into the legislature in 2021, headed to five separate conferences or speaking engagements around the world this year thanks in part to funding from outside groups.
In March, the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign paid the senator’s lodging expenses in order for her to address the UK Parliament in London about the shifting context of American-Ukrainian relations. While across the pond, Vyhovsky, who is of Ukrainian descent, traveled to Brussels to visit the European Parliament and give the opening address at a conference hosted by the European Network for Solidarity With Ukraine. The network covered her conference fee and meals; Vyhovsky paid for her round-trip airfare and lodging in Belgium.
While Vyhovsky was in Europe, the chair of the Vermont Republican Party, Paul Dame, alleged that Vyhovsky’s absence from the Senate delayed action on a bill to repeal the clean heat standard, one of the most significant environmental reforms the legislature has tackled in recent years. The Senate voted unanimously to postpone its vote on the legislation until the following week. The bill ultimately did not advance.
In June, after the legislature adjourned for the year, Vyhovsky traveled to Madrid as a guest of the Organization for Global Policy & Dialogue’s young leaders conference, where she delivered the keynote address on grassroots campaigning. The organization covered her lodging and conference fees. After that, she headed to Alaska on a trip paid for by the nonprofit National Conference of State Legislatures to participate in a summit on elections.
Her most recent trip, a two-week excursion to Ukraine in August to meet with national labor organizers, trade union leaders and a range of Ukrainian activists, was funded mostly from her own savings, with some help from friends and family in the U.S. Vyhovsky said a few of the Ukrainian organizers she met during her travels covered incidental expenses such as train tickets and meals.
Vyhovsky said it can be tricky to balance this travel with her work as a legislator and an independent social worker, but she has found the benefits to be worthwhile. She credits her relationships with policy makers outside Vermont with helping to shape legislation in 2024 for the state’s first overdose-prevention center, planned for Burlington. When the legislature reconvenes next year, Vyhovsky hopes to introduce a social housing bill that will have elements drawn from one in Vienna, Austria, that she learned about with international policy makers.
Vyhovsky said she did not consult with the state ethics commission about accepting any of the funding assistance for the conference travels because she felt confident they were all within the bounds set by the state’s code of ethics. She was involved in drafting the legislature’s disclosure policy and had previously discussed rules with Senate leadership and legislative attorneys ahead of a trip she took to Cuba organized by the Democratic Socialists of America in 2023.
Sivret, the commission’s director, said her panel typically receives only a few inquiries from legislators each year. Most legislators don’t check about taxpayer-funded trips, Sivret said, because those trips are closely tracked and are unlikely to be considered gifts under the state ethics code.
In the House, representatives can request funding through the speaker’s office to cover conferences costs, said Conor Kennedy, chief of staff to House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington).
Kennedy said the speaker’s office has largely limited reimbursements to events hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments and a handful of other nonprofit organizations with reputations for nonpartisan work.
Last month, the National Conference of State Legislatures covered Krowinski’s expenses to participate in its leadership symposium in Iceland. Kennedy said the speaker tries to attend at least one of those annually.
Lawmakers can participate in conferences held by partisan organizations, but the events are not eligible for reimbursement. In 2015, an investigative report by Atlanta’s NBC affiliate showed then-representative Bob Helm talking with lobbyists at a Savannah conference hosted by the American Legislative Exchange Council. In the video report, which detailed the council’s role in drafting and promoting state legislation friendly to its corporate sponsors, Helm is shown describing how lobbyists indirectly pay for legislators’ participation.
In the Senate, lawmakers can get up to $1,500 in reimbursements to apply to conference costs as they see fit. To receive the taxpayer funds, however, the senators must track and submit their expenses for approval.
During the 2023-24 biennium, legislators spent just over $50,000 on conference-related expenses with taxpayer funds, according to data released by the Joint Fiscal Office, home to the Statehouse’s professional financial analysts. The data, tracked by each member’s reimbursement request, show that the bulk of funding went to airfare and lodging. No member of the legislature accrued more than $4,000 in conference-related expenses.
This spending pales in comparison to the figures foreign governments and outside groups are estimated to spend to bring Vermont’s lawmakers to conferences. For example, the Israeli government spent $32,000 for Vermont’s five representatives to participate in its September event, according to the foreign ministry’s estimates.
Rep. Sarah “Sarita” Austin (D-Colchester), one of those reps, said she was surprised by the negative reactions. Austin felt some people misunderstood why she and the other representatives chose to go but acknowledged the lack of public disclosure.
“It just didn’t occur to me that we should find some way to inform our citizens we were doing this,” Austin said. “Maybe it is best practice so people don’t feel blindsided.”
Rep. Will Greer (D-Bennington) also attended the conference in Israel and has traveled to Ireland; Washington, D.C.; and Boston for other conferences as a legislator. Greer paid his own way to Ireland but accepted funding from the nonpartisan Future Caucus and the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators to travel domestically.
Greer said he has begun working on a bill in collaboration with Rep. Gina Galfetti (R-Barre), who was also a member of Vermont’s delegation in Israel, that would require legislators to disclose any travel they undertake for the State of Vermont.
“When it comes to disclosure and accountability, that is where Vermont is falling behind.”
Christina Sivret
Earlier this year, legislators decided to eliminate the state ethics commission’s role in consulting on ethics complaints and delayed for two years empowering it to investigate issues such as alleged gift violations. The commission would have been able to investigate complaints starting last month.
The legislature’s actions were a step backward for transparency and accountability, commission director Sivret said.
“This is just one example of where we’ve gone as far as creating the rules, but when it comes to disclosure and accountability, that is where Vermont is falling behind,” she said.
Gifts such as international airfare and hotel stays are considered potential avenues of influence in the same way as campaign donations and gifts from lobbyists, said Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School and expert in government ethics policies.
“The major concern in all these things is that people give gifts — including meals, travel and entertainment — to public officials in order to influence their decisions,” Briffault said.
When registered lobbyists give something to state legislators, the lobbyist must disclose each gift to the Secretary of State’s Office. A gift is broadly defined by state statute to include political contributions, meals, sporting event tickets and speaking fees, though “reasonable travel expenses” are exempted. The gifts are available for the public to search online.
The highest-value gifts made to state legislators thus far this year were two sweatshirts, valued at $70 each, given by the Vermont State Colleges to Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden-Central) and House Speaker Krowinski. The vast majority of the roughly 135 gifts filed so far this year were for legislative luncheons valued at $35 or less.
Briffault said paying out-of-pocket to travel for legislative conferences or speaking engagements has the lowest risk of a conflict of interest or ethics violation because no outside benefit is provided that could influence a lawmaker’s policy decisions.
This August, Rep. Conor Casey (D-Montpelier) was among five state representatives who paid their own way to a summit hosted by the American Irish State Legislators Caucus in Ireland. Casey said it’s an opportunity for legislators to strengthen diplomatic ties with Ireland and learn about innovations in its rural economy, among other topics.
This was the third year Vermont legislators have attended the annual summit. Casey, who grew up in both Ireland and the U.S., estimated the total expenses of each trip exceeded $1,000 per person.
Casey said that although the trip can be cost-prohibitive, it provides an opportunity for legislators to learn from Ireland’s fraught political history.
“A lot of lessons can be learned as we’re looking at increasing polarization and heated rhetoric over here,” Casey said. “Like how do you work with someone you completely disagree with on a visceral level.”
This year, the legislature passed a bill to create the Vermont-Ireland Trade Commission within the State Treasurer’s Office to advance bilateral trade and investment between the two nations. Casey, who introduced but failed to pass similar legislation last year, said approximately 30 other states already have similar commissions in place.
Most legislators want to do the right thing, Briffault said. Legislators and the public can avoid mistrust and confusion around whether a trip was ethical if there is a clear, accessible policy in place.
At a minimum, a policy should enable the public to know who paid, the amount spent, and the stated subject and purpose behind the gift, he said. Ideally, this information would be made readily accessible online.
Rep. Chea Waters Evans (D-Charlotte) is a ranking member on the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee, which has purview over gift regulations for the chamber. She said she has not heard of any cases of a Vermont legislator being “nefarious or trying to be duplicitous” about their trips or ethics disclosures. But she noted that although the legislature had “chipped away” at its disclosure requirements in recent years, it’s always better to have fuller reporting.
“Transparency itself is a trust builder,” she said.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Trips Without a Trace | Vermont’s lawmakers don’t have to disclose when they accept free travel. After a controversial junket to Israel, some say that should change.”
Clarification, October 9, 2025: This post was modified to note that Rep. Gina Galfetti (R-Barre), was working with Greer on a bill.
This article appears in Oct 8-14 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!