Petri & Travel: Only if no one is watching!

Niel Wright, a Petri spokesman, said: "Office policy is probably stricter now while the debate goes on in Congress over what's appropriate and what isn't."

Petri traveled heavily on privately sponsored trips in the same period a year earlier: to Paris, Tokyo, New York City and Florida, and, at taxpayer expense, to France and England.

Wright said "no specific decision" had led Petri to forgo trips more recently.