Congress has been criticized for many things in recent months — fumbling on immigration reform, failing to pass basic bills for state services, leaving the long-term unemployed without help — you name it. Now you can add obscuring details of who's paying for lawmakers' travel to the list. As first observed by National Journal, the House Ethics Committee — which is in charge of establishing the rules by which Congress operates — quietly removed a requirement to list "sponsored travel" on their annual financial disclosure forms. Sponsored travel refers to those trips lawmakers take that are paid for by groups outside Congress, often agenda-based or lobbying organizations. The trips have a tendency to be lavish and extend to lawmakers' family and loved ones, and came under fire in the 1970s after Watergate and in 2006, after the Jack Abramoff scandal.