Bachmann hits the road as she prepares to leave Congress

Retiring U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has taken more privately financed trips in 2014 than any other member of Congress.

The Minnesota lawmaker's six trips include a visit to Haiti in August through the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

The total cost of trips by members of Congress and their aides during August reached $766,000, according to LegiStorm. The nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group found that member trip cost $2 million last August.

That's because lawmakers often scale back travel during election years, choosing to focus their attention on the campaign trail. With her plans to leave Congress at the end of the year and no re-election on the horizon, Bachmann has opted to hit the road more often.

Since January, Bachmann has also traveled to: a Heritage Foundation event in Richmond, Va., in February; England's Oxford Union Society in March; an event hosted by the Israel Allies Caucus Foundation in Dallas in March; Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Ok., in May; and the Western Conservative Summit in Denver in July, congressional records show.

During her first seven years in the U.S. House, Bachmann took 23 privately financed trips, for an average of slightly more than three per year.

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