Assembly Speaker Robin Vos received $57,000 in travel and other perks since 2014
Patrick MarleyMADISON - Assembly Speaker Robin Vos received about $13,000 in travel and perks last year — including overseas trips that he extended for personal reasons — bringing his four-year total to $57,000.
Vos went on a trip to France bankrolled by the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures just before he got married in Italy and he extended a trip to London funded by a conservative group so he could spend three days in Iceland.
An ethics form made public this week outlined Vos’ travel last year and he provided additional details about it in an interview.
Among those joining him on the trips to London, Iceland and France last year was Cliff Rosenberger, who was then the speaker of the Ohio House and is now being investigated by the FBI for his travel and other matters. Rosenberger resigned last month because of the investigation but said he is confident he will be cleared.
Vos said he had not heard from the FBI and was certain he had followed ethics rules with his own travel.
“I have nothing to be concerned about,” Vos said.
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Mike Browne, deputy director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, questioned the propriety of the trips.
"Payday lenders and the others paying for these junkets have stamped Robin Vos' passport to corruption," Browne said in a statement. "Vos' contention that this European vacation and his other travels are on the up and up is simply not believable. Vos got a trip of a lifetime, what are the people footing the bills getting?"
Part of the FBI investigation of Rosenberger centers on his relationship with donor Ginni Ragan, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Ragan has made just one donation in Wisconsin — to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, which Vos controls.
Vos said Rosenberger told him to talk to Ragan because she is interested in how to treat dementia and Vos in 2015 had established a task force on Alzheimer’s disease. He said he saw her again at the Republican National Convention in July 2016. Three months later, she gave $15,000 to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee.
In August 2017, Vos, Rosenberger and others went to London on a trip funded by the conservative GOPAC Education Fund. They met with the granddaughter of World War II-era Prime Minister Winston Churchill and hobnobbed with lobbyists for the title loan industry who joined the trip.
Vos has long supported looser regulations for the title and payday loan industries. Since 2008, title loan executive Rod Aycox and his family have funneled $87,500 to GOP candidates in Wisconsin. Aycox leads Select Management Resources, which operates in Wisconsin as LoanMax.
The London trip was valued at about $3,600, according to Vos' ethics form.
Vos started that trip early so he could stay in Iceland for three days with Rosenberger, Ohio state Rep. Nathan Manning and Michelle Litjens, a GOP fundraiser who was then Vos’ fiancée and is now his wife. Vos said he and Litjens paid their own way while in Iceland and covered Litjens’ expenses while the couple was in the United Kingdom.
In September, Vos participated in a leadership summit in Normandy, France, funded by the National Conference of State Legislatures. In all, the group covered about $5,200 in expenses for Vos last year, according to his ethics report.
On the France trip, lawmakers were taken to World War II battlefields to learn about why leaders made their tactical decisions and how those decisions played out.
About 10 days later, Vos and Litjens got married in Italy, with Rosenberger as Vos’ best man. Vos disclosed receiving a gift worth more than $50 from Rosenberger on his ethics form, which Vos said was a wedding present.
Vos said he got to know Rosenberger about five years ago because they were both speakers. Vos estimated he has seen him 20 times over the years.
Also funding Vos' travel last year was the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, which covered about $3,900 in expenses.
This March, Vos led a trade delegation to Quebec sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures and National Assembly of Quebec. There, he was joined by seven Wisconsin lawmakers — four Republicans and three Democrats.
In 2016, Vos went to China on a trip paid for by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation. In all, that group covered $14,350 in expenses for him that year.
Wisconsin's ethics laws generally prohibit legislators from accepting valuable gifts but do allow them to accept travel expenses to go to conferences about official business, according to the state Ethics Commission.
Vos is vice president of the National Conference of State Legislatures and second vice chairman of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation.
Vos said the bipartisan organizations help improve relationships between lawmakers who are often adversaries. He is often asked to join trips because of his leadership position with the organizations, he said.
“They want me to travel a lot and I’m not traveling as much as they’d like,” he said.
The State Legislative Leaders Foundation is having a conference in Milwaukee this August, which Vos said would help promote the state.
“We live in a wonderful state that sometimes has a stereotype,” he said. “I love bringing people here.”