i have gone back -- jim traficant was expelled in probably 2002 or 2003. he was a congressman from ohio convicted of taking kickbacks. went to jail and was expelled from the congress. there was a fairly dramatic moment. the house had to vote to expel him. it came through the justice department first. there has been several dozen cases over the past seven or eight years since the new process has been in place. members have gotten various punishments. they may not be what you consider to be proper punishments. sometimes they get a letter saying you shouldn't have done that. the trip to azerbaijan. a similar case some years ago. members of congress took a trip overseas. they shouldn't have accepted this gift. that trip had been approved by the ethics committee. members of congress were part -- required to pay back part of the trip. they could use campaign funds to pay for that. so how much punishment was that? charlie wrangle got a letter saying yeah, well, you still did something wrong because your staff new this was improperly paid and you should have known

i have gone back -- jim traficant was expelled in probably 2002 or 2003.e was a congressman from ohio convicted of taking kickbacks. went to jail and was expelled from the congress. there was a fairly dramatic moment. the house had to vote to expel him. it came through the justice department first. there has been several dozen cases over the past seven or eight years since the new process has been in place. members have gotten various punishments. they may not be what you consider to be proper punishments. sometimes they get a letter saying you shouldn't have done that. the trip to azerbaijan. a similar case some years ago. members of congress took a trip overseas. they shouldn't have accepted this gift. that trip had been approved by the ethics committee. members of congress were part -- required to pay back part of the trip. they could use campaign funds to pay for that. so how much punishment was that? charlie wrangle got a letter saying yeah, well, you still did something wrong because your staff new this was improperly paid and you should have known.

i have gone back -- first of all, jim traficant was expeled in 2002 or 2003.s convicted of taking kickbacks, went to jail and was expeled from the congress. it was a dramatic moment where he had to go to the floor of the house and the vote had to expel them. came through the ethics committee. so that's one. there's been several dozen cases over the past seven or eight years since the process has been in place where members have gotten various kinds of punishments, although you may not consider them to be proper punishments. saying they get a letter saying you shouldn't have done it. that was a harsh punishment. the trip that we are talking about is similar case, some years ago members of congress took a trip overseas and it was paid for by a private interest and shouldn't have accepted these gifts but the trip had been approved by the ethics committee. the outcome was members of congress were required to pay back the cost of the trip. but they were allowed to use their campaign funds to pay for it. how much punishment was that. 91 by the yeas and nays h.r. 131