The Caribbean trips sponsored by the council leave lawmakers with leisure time. A trip last year didn't have any mandatory events scheduled after 11 a.m., other than lunches and dinners, and included a stay at Antigua's Carlisle Bay Hotel, where rooms in January can go for $990 a night, according to its Web site.
This year's event was busier, and included a tour of real- estate and road projects, the port of Kingston, and the site of a 2007 cricket tournament, as well as meetings with business leaders and Jamaican cabinet officials.
There's nothing quite like a junket for recharging the batteries of tired politicians.