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HARRISBURG — Top Pennsylvania politicians accepted roughly $119,000 in gifts and hospitality from groups seeking to influence government last year, including several pricey trips to Israel and Taiwan.
State law places no limits on what lobbyists and other interested parties can give to commonwealth employees or holders of public office. The only requirement is that they report any gift worth more than $250, and any travel, meals, and lodging worth more than $650, on annual forms they file with the State Ethics Commission.
Public officials are supposed to decline gifts if accepting them will influence their votes or positions. Under both legislative chambers’ ethics rules, state lawmakers are also barred from accepting cash gifts from a lobbyist or anyone else seeking a specific legislative outcome.
However, there aren’t many ways to enforce these rules, and there’s a loophole that leads to underreporting. Generally, lawmakers police themselves.
Spotlight PA reviewed the 2024 disclosures of 35 top Pennsylvania officials: state House and Senate leaders from both parties, the governor, lieutenant governor, and the commonwealth’s three row officers.
Of the gifts and hospitality that top lawmakers reported accepting, roughly 30% covered travel abroad by three people.
State House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery), among the most powerful policymakers in the divided state Capitol, received a weeklong trip to Israel in December from the American Israel Education Foundation, which he said on his ethics report was worth $14,700.
The foundation is a charitable affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a lobby that advocates for U.S. support for Israel, and is the biggest private sponsor of congressional travel, according to Politico. Critics of U.S. support for the country argue these trips help build a pro-Israeli consensus even as the nation’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people.
A spokesperson for Bradford confirmed the trip, but otherwise did not offer any comment. Marshall Wittmann, a spokesperson for AIPAC, said the itinerary included “meeting with Israeli political leaders from the government and opposition, briefings with regional experts, and visits to Israel’s borders.”
The trips, Wittmann added, “help educate American political leaders about the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship through firsthand experiences in Israel.”
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R., Washington), who serves as caucus secretary, and state Rep. Tim O’Neal (R., Washington), who is his caucus’ whip, also accepted trips. The two traveled to Taiwan on the dime of the country’s government through its New York City consulate. Hospitality costs for both of them came to a combined $21,000.
In a statement, O’Neal told Spotlight PA he was invited and traveled to Taiwan in December 2024 “as part of a working group of state legislators from the United States, as other legislators have done in past years.”
While there, he said he “met with various government and business officials and worked to build upon the already strong relations between Pennsylvania and Taiwan.” He added that he has already “helped initiate a conversation between a Pennsylvanian business and one in Taiwan that may lead to a mutually beneficial economic relationship.”
Bartolotta confirmed the trip, saying it allowed her to learn about a top American trade partner without costing Pennsylvania taxpayers.
“It’s good to have good relationships everywhere,” she said, adding, “I don’t think my taxpayers have to worry about Taiwanese taxpayer money being used.”
The Taiwanese government is a frequent sponsor of state legislators' travel. Over the years, it’s paid tens of thousands of dollars to bring Democrats and Republicans to the island nation east of mainland China. At least four lawmakers, for instance, went in 2023.
The organizers of both the Taiwan and Israel trips declined to provide a full list of attendees.
Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia University and expert in government ethics policies, said Pennsylvania’s lack of gift caps, coupled with a relatively high reporting requirement, makes it “obviously, not much of a restriction.”
“The best practice, really, is to prohibit [gift giving to lawmakers], or to prohibit it other than de minimis gifts along the lines of … $25, $50, $100,” he told Spotlight PA.
Briffault added that foreign governments have an agenda when they underwrite lawmakers’ travel.
“A place like Taiwan is very interested in having good relations with the United States generally,” he said. “This is a kind of long-term, deep strategy, cultivating people at the state and local level, as part of a general strategy of having influence in the United States.”
Top officials reported another $21,000 in travel paid for by an array of interest groups, including national associations for lobbyists and school choice advocates, as well as multiple political organizations.
Other legislative leaders accepted money from unions, utilities, and insurers, primarily to pay for constituent events.
State Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D., Philadelphia), for instance, accepted a combined $20,000 from 19 different businesses, organizations, and individuals to finance community events hosted by her office. Among the sponsors were UFCW Local 1776, electric utility PECO, and a Harrisburg lobby shop.
A spokesperson for Tartaglione said this money goes toward four community picnics that she throws for schoolchildren in her district every summer, and four senior expos she holds in the fall. The office uses the money, the spokesperson said, to buy things like backpacks and school supplies that are given out at the events.
State House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) and Appropriations Committee Chair Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia) reported, respectively, $23,500 and $15,200 worth of gifts and hospitality. As with Tartaglione, much was used to pay for constituent services or events.
McClinton accepted $13,500 combined from Highmark, a Pittsburgh-based insurer and hospital chain, and PECO to host three community events. She also reported $2,500 from the Philadelphia Zoo and $2,000 from the city of Philadelphia.
A spokesperson didn’t clarify what those expenses were for. The zoo often pays for constituent visits, and the city has a box to which it gives away tickets at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles. McClinton filmed herself attending an Eagles game with multiple elected colleagues in a box last year; a spokesperson did not say how the tickets were paid for at the time.
Several of the Philadelphia lawmakers in leadership tended to have higher gift totals, but most of those gifts were routed toward constituents. Christina Fonseca, a spokesperson for Harris, said his goal with this spending is to give constituents opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise get.
“There’s an abundance of riches and arts in the city, but lower-income people are often locked out of these opportunities,” Fonseca said. “So part of the reason we put gifts toward constituents is to open the doors to these institutions.”
Harris accepted $4,600 from the Philadelphia Zoo for what a spokesperson said was an educational event for constituent children and families, as well as $3,000 in concert tickets for constituents and at least $600 in Eagles tickets from the Philadelphia city government.
Fonseca said Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker invited Harris to the football game, and that while he was there he also met with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey — a former state House colleague — as part of Harris’ pet effort to convince the NFL to have the Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers play each other more often.
Harris also reported that a lobbyist, a political operative, and a grocery store all gave him gifts to help with funeral costs after his wife’s death last year. Fonseca noted that while the givers do work in politics, they’re also longtime close friends of Harris and his family, and the money went directly to the funeral home.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro again reported that Team PA, a nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors and also holds state contracts, funded some of his travel. Last year’s amount was $900. He reported $12,000 in 2023, including a trip to that year’s Super Bowl.
Shapiro has a gift ban in place for his administration, but his office has told Spotlight PA in the past that he doesn’t believe it covers Team PA. The nonprofit has a long history of close work with Pennsylvania governors, and a spokesperson previously called it “completely incomparable to a private actor.”
Shapiro’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The numbers disclosed on legislators’ ethics forms are likely only a portion of the total gifts and travel paid for by special interests.
Lawmakers add items to their reports only when a lobbyist tells them that a gift or trip is over the reporting threshold. In 2019, a state House committee issued a report that found lobbyists routinely spread gift costs among their legislative clients, which keeps the cost below the threshold.
That means what shows up, and what doesn’t, is a matter of self-policing between lawmakers and lobbyists, state Rep. Seth Grove (R., York), who chaired the committee at the time, told Spotlight PA — “not that there are dishonest people in the world,” he joked.
He called on the legislature to pass a new standard that would require reporting as soon as a lobbyist spends a single dollar on a meal, trip, or gift for any legislator.
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