The North Dakota Ethics Commission must adopt new travel and financial disclosure rules for all state agencies and the legislature. Even travel funded by outside groups should be tracked.
The recent guilty plea by former Senator Ray Holmberg (R-Grand Forks) to child sex tourism charges revealed deficiencies in the rules governing parliamentary travel.
Holmberg has amassed about $109,000 in travel expenses between 2013 and his retirement in 2022, more than any other lawmaker. And as chair of Legislative Management from 2013 to 2018, he approved the legislature’s travel, including his own. That included his trips to Puerto Rico, Alaska and Miami Beach.
It is a disgrace for the state and the legislature that he may have used some of his travels to have sex with minors in the Czech Republic. Before the scandal came to light, he was considered one of the state’s most knowledgeable legislators. He was among the state’s longest-serving MPs.
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He was chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and was considered an expert on the federal budget and government finances, allowing him to travel around the world without his spending being questioned.
Not all of his travel expenses were covered by the legislative budget. Holmberg and many other parliamentarians made and continue to make their trips with funds from outside groups.
The North Dakota Monitor reported that state data shows the state legislature spent about $460,000 in taxpayer money on out-of-state travel from 2014 to 2024.
Holmberg was able to travel so much in part because he authorized it, and in part because lawmakers were encouraged to attend conferences and other events.
Republican House Majority Leader Mike Lefor argues that trips to legislative seats have legitimate benefits, allowing lawmakers to discuss issues with other politicians and take ideas home with them.
Lefor wants to change something so that no legislator approves his own trips.
The Tribune editorial board has no objection to travel by lawmakers or members of other state agencies. However, the trips, their purpose and their results must be better documented.
If someone is travelling at the expense of an outside group, this must be tracked in a similar way.
According to Executive Director Rebecca Binstock, the Ethics Commission is considering new travel and financial disclosure rules to create a central online platform for public officials’ travel records.
The Commission must allow a period of public comment and hold a public hearing on any changes before they can be adopted, so no changes take effect immediately.
Travel needs to be transparent. If someone wants to check the travel of parliamentarians or other states, there should be a database to check this. There is no evidence of other problems with parliamentarians’ travel, but there needs to be a better way to monitor it. This is not only for the benefit of the public, but also parliamentarians and other state officials.
