Lawmakers’ Fees Exceed $8 Million : Congress: Income from speeches declines sharply in the Senate. House members’ honorariums keep pace with past years.

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress collected nearly $8.4 million in appearance fees from special interest groups last year, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) set the pace with a record $310,000 in honorariums, documents made public Friday show.

Although the amount of honorariums paid to members of the Senate declined sharply, House members generally kept pace with figures from recent years--apparently collecting as much as possible before appearance fees for House members were banned, effective Jan. 1.

Unlike House members, who have raised their annual salaries to $125,000 to compensate for the loss of honorarium income this year, members of the Senate are still permitted to supplement their $104,600 annual government income with appearance fees.

In 1990, House members received government salaries of $99,500 and were allowed to pocket up to $26,850 in appearance fees. Senate members were permitted to accept up to $27,337 in honorariums. No member could accept more than $2,000 for any single appearance, and all excess honorariums were to be donated to charity.

Total honorariums for members of Congress peaked at nearly $10 million in 1987, according to records kept by Common Cause, a lobbying group. Since then, the amount has declined in response to widespread criticism from public-interest groups, who insist that members of Congress should not get personal income from special interests.

But some members of Congress have continued to earn high honorariums. Rostenkowski, the perennial leader in honorarium income, last year surpassed his record of $285,000, set in 1989. He reported spending more than 90 days last year traveling at the expense of special interest groups.

Although most representatives receive no more than $2,000 for a speech, Rostenkowski routinely took $7,500 for speeches and once got $12,000. He is an avid golfer and made numerous expense-paid trips to golf tournaments as well as speaking trips. These trips included five days at the AT&T; Pro Am at Pebble Beach, Calif., seven days at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., and four days at the J. C. Penney Golf Tournament in Tampa, Fla.

Although Rostenkowski’s honorariums far exceeded those of any other member of Congress, three other House members also were among the leaders. Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) received $157,697, Rep. Bill Gradison (R-Ohio) raised $93,600 and Rep. John J. LaFalce (D-N.Y.) got $93,350.

In the Senate, the leading earner of honorariums last year was Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), who took in $82,200. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) received $78,100, and Assistant Minority Leader Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) got $78,900.

Even though the Senate voted recently to reject a proposal by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) to ban honorariums, it appears that a growing number of senators are voluntarily giving them up. At least 26 senators took no appearance fees last year, compared with 19 who took none in 1989.

Senators also took fewer trips last year at the expense of special interests. But there was no apparent decrease in trips by House members, who can continue traveling at the expense of special interests this year, even though they have banned honorariums.

One senator who did not cut back on his expense-paid trips was Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.), who went to Palm Beach, Fla., on six occasions last year at the expense of the American Bankers Assn., BellSouth Corp., Pratt & Whitney, the Chicago Board of Trade, United States Tobacco Co. and William and Mary College. Dixon owns a condominium in Palm Beach.

The most lucrative speaking tours for members of Congress were arranged by major defense contractors, many of them with headquarters in Southern California. These were generally reserved for members of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, including Reps. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.), C. W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn.) and Charles Wilson (D-Tex.).

AuCoin, for example, spent most of January on an expense-paid tour of defense plants in Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas and New Orleans, collecting honorariums at every stop. In all, the trip netted him more than $25,000 in appearance fees.

Trips by members of Congress were not confined to the United States. Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.) made eight foreign trips to such places as Munich, Lisbon, London, Brussels, Bonn, Berlin, Budapest, Prague and Tokyo.

Reps. Rod Chandler (R-Wash.) and William F. Clinger Jr. (R-Pa.) each spent 10 days in Australia at the expense of the Australian Meat & Livestock Corp., and Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.) went to Brazil, Puerto Rico, England, Bermuda and the Soviet Union at special interest expense.

Although honorariums have declined, more lawmakers are reporting that they receive “stipends,” either for regular broadcast appearances or classroom lectures. Members of Congress may earn stipends of up to $15,000 a year.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) received $8,800 for radio broadcasts, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) received $5,000 from Bard College and Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Palo Alto) reported getting $15,000 from Stanford Law School, where he taught before coming to Congress. He said he decided to teach an unusual Sunday morning class at Stanford so he would not have to forfeit his tenure and his right to own a house on campus.

Many members of Congress reported receiving a nine-volume video of the television documentary “The Civil War” last year, a gift from General Motors Corp. But their estimates of the value of the tapes varied, from a low of $120 to a high of $395. Each set cost General Motors $70, a company spokesman said.

Staff writers Oswald Johnston, Paul Houston, William J. Eaton, Robert Jackson, Alan Miller and David Lauter and researchers Stephanie Grace, Murielle Gamache and Keating Holland contributed to this story.