Over the next few days, quite a few members of Congress are using getaways and sports events to stock their re-election accounts.

Two members have booked suites at basketball arenas and two others have planned ski outings. One senator, Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, will be fundraising at the Lady Gaga concert in D.C. tonight, according to the invitation.

Freshman congressman Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., has invited donors to a suite at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia for a college basketball game between Villanova and St. Johns on Saturday.

A seat with the former National Hockey League referee costs much more than it would normally. A mid-level suite at the arena can be had for between $3,000 and $3,750, depending on how many people squeeze in. The freshman congressman is requesting that each PAC contributes $1,500 for a spot, while each individual can get in for $750, according to the invitation.

Philadelphia area donors contributed more than $1.5 million, about half of his total fundraising, to his campaign last election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Rep. Jesse Jackson, R-Ill., will also be holding a basketball fundraiser — watching his hometown Chicago Bulls play the Wizards at the Verizon Center on Monday, according to the invitation. Jackson is charging $1,500 for a ticket.

Meanwhile, congressman Ron Kind, D-Wis., will be joined by donors for a ski and spa retreat in Park City, Utah, according to the invitation, which highlights his position on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and as a leader of the Democrats’ Blue Dog Coalition. The donation ($2,500 for individuals, $5,000 for PACs) goes towards Kind’s leadership PAC.

Jackson Hole, Wyo., a popular ski retreat, also appears to be the site of a congressional fundraiser this weekend, with the fourth annual “Winter Snow Fling” for Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. PACs can become “primary ski pass” sponsors for $5,000, according to the invitation.

As the 43 members of Congress on the financial reform conference committee meet this month to hash out the final bill, more than half have planned fundraisers for themselves or are scheduled to be special guests at fundraisers for their colleagues.

In Party Time’s database of invitations for the month of June, 28 of these events were for their own campaigns or political action committees, while 14 were for other lawmakers.

At least two members — Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the head of the House-Senate joint committee, and Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee — have postponed fundraisers since the committee convened on June 10, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Bachus’ press secretary Tim Johnson also told Party Time that Bachus did not attend one of the fundraisers that conflicted with the conference committee meeting. “Obviously there was a conflict with conference and that’s where the congressman’s full attention is,” Johnson said. Our count does not include postponed or canceled events.

For our full list, check out the spreadsheet below. Note: Our database only includes some of the fundraisers in the D.C. area, which we learn about from anonymous sources, so there may be more that we don’t know about.

Of the June Party Time invitations that, as far as we know, were planned to happen, here are some that caught our eye:

On the GOP side, Reps. Sam Graves, R-Miss., and Lamar Smith, R.-Tex., had invites to quite a few June soirees. Graves, the ranking Republican on the House Small Business Committee, planned six events this month, including a lunch at noon on June 16th just an hour after the committee started meeting at 11 a.m.

On June 14th, Smith’s political action committee, Longhorn PAC, planned its annual tennis event at the Washington Golf & Country Club. Smith, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, is also set to host three events for either himself or his PAC this month, and was a guest at a fundraiser for Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla.

On June 15th, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., planned to use an Eagles concert at Nationals Stadium to raise money. Issa, the ranking member on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also plans to hold his 9th Annual “Issa Cream Special” on June 23rd at the Associated General Contractors of America Townhouse with special guests, the “California GOP Delegation”. A ticket could cost as much as $2,500, or as little as $100 for those 35 and under.

Issa was also scheduled to host a fundraising breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club on Tuesday hosted by lobbyist Will Moschella, who represents the Electronic Payment Coalition among others. Moschella’s firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Shrek, LLP, is one of the top lobbying firms working on financial reform legislation, representing 19 clients to lobby on the financial reform overhaul in 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity.

On June 9, just before the joint committee opened, Spencer Bachus, was scheduled to wine and dine at a Financial Services Industry Dinner at Acadiana to raise money for Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.

On the Democratic side, House-Senate Conference Committee head Barney Frank was listed as a featured guest on at least 15 fundraisers for his colleagues and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year. On June 7, Frank was listed as a host to a fundraising lunch for his colleague Ron Klein, D-Fla. He also plans to headline a fundraiser for Alan Grayson, D-Fla., at the National Democratic Club on July 1.

Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., planned two fundraisers this month, including a June 10 breakfast at the home of lobbyist Robert Raben, founder of the Raben Group, which lobbies on financial issues. The invite highlights Maloney’s committee positions as chair of the Joint Economic Committee and a member on both the Financial Services and Oversight Committee and Government Reform Committee.

Next week, Maloney plans to schmooze with donors while watching the “Carole King and James Taylor’s Troubadour Reunion Tour” at the Verizon Center.

Elijah Cummings, D-Md., also has plans for a June 24 fundraiser. The invitation highlights his positions as senior whip, senior member of the Joint Economic Committee, and senior member of the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform.

On Wednesday, in the middle of the conference committee meeting, former NFL Quarterback and chair of the Subcommittee on Rural and Urban Entrepreneurship Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., had planned for a $1,000-a-plate “Southern Summer Luncheon” at the National Democratic Club Townhouse to raise money for his campaign.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, was also scheduled to be a guest at a fundraising breakfast on June 11 for Rep. Bryan Lentz, D-Pa.

Of the 12 Senators on the committee, Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, are billed as hosts while Sen. Tim Johnson was scheduled to hold a fundraiser at the National Automobile Dealers Association on June 15.

Finally, using Party Time’s Events by Committee search option, here are links to the fundraisers held by the House and Senate committees whose members were pulled for the conference committee:

House Financial Services Committee

House Committee on Agriculture

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

House Committee on Energy and Commerce

Joint Economic Committee

House Committee on Small Business

Senate Banking Committee

Senate Commitee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry

At two Bruce Springsteen concerts in DC last year there were more than a dozen fundraisers held for members of Congress, according to a Washington Post article today.

Reporters at the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica and the Post wrote about these fundraisers using Party Time data and combined it with campaign finance and lobbying reports, identifying some of the organizations involved with these fundraisers.

Here’s a complete list of all the fundraiser fliers for the concerts Party Time collected last year:

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., May 2009.

Democratic Congressional Committee/Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., May 2009.

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., May 2009.

Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., Nov 2009.

Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wisc., May 2009.

Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., May 2009.

Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., May 2009.

Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., Nov 2009.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Nov 2009.

Rep. John Carter, R-Tex., Nov 2009.

Rep. Ed Towns, D-N.Y., Nov 2009.

Rep. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa., Nov 2009.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., Nov 2009.

Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., May 2009.

Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., May 2009.

Rep. Ed Towns, D-N.Y., May 2009.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., May 2009.

Rep. Tom Harkin D-Iowa., May 2009.

Elham contributed to this report.

A self-proclaimed lobbyist for an alternative health organization–who left a prominent conservative group more than a decade ago under a cloud of financial mismanagement–is hosting a fundraiser next week for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Grassley, who recently earned fame for his tweets on health care, has a reputation as a strong crusader for drug safety. But he has also has championed policies favoring the alternative health industry, which some consumer critics charge is not adequately regulated by the federal government.

Sam Brunelli, who works for the Whitaker Health Freedom Foundation, the political arm of the Freedom of Health Foundation, and his wife, Robin Read, are feting Grassley at a breakfast on June 24 at the Capitol Hill Club. The Foundation, headed by Dr. Julian Whitaker of dietary supplement fame, states it opposes the government and the pharmaceutical industry whenever they “suppress the truth about alternative medical therapies and/or nutritional supplementation.” Read is president and CEO of the Foundation for Women Legislators, which includes Dr. Whitaker on its board. The Freedom of Health Foundation did not return a call inquiring about the event.

Brunelli is introduced as a lobbyist on the organization’s Web site, here; however there are no official records of his work at least as a federal lobbyist here, according to lobbyist disclosure reports. The most recent available tax forms filed by the Whitaker Health Freedom Foundation, the political arm, claim a budget of just $34,000 and make no mention of payments to staff. (See the organization’s 1998 990 form here.)

Brunelli formerly served as executive director of the conservative group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which works to advance conservative state legislators. He left the group in 1995 over charges of mismanagement and personal enrichment, according to a 1995 National Journal report.

Grassley goes to bat for alternative health care therapies

Grassley has earned a reputation as an active watchdog of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pushing to strengthen the agency’s regulation of pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices and arguing for tough conflict-of-interest laws for researchers. Indeed he won an award this year from the National Research Center for Women & Families because “his willingness to challenge the FDA has saved the lives of adults and children by helping remove unsafe medical products from the market.”

However, Grassley also has long been a supporter of alternative health care therapies and has enjoyed support from the “health freedom” movement, which opposes strong regulation of supplements.

In 1994, Grassley co-sponsored a law championed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act. This law established the U.S. Food and Drug Administation’s (FDA) authority to regulate dietary supplements–but as a food rather than a drug. This means supplements can be marketed without any requirements that they first be proven safe or effective, as pharmaceuticals must be.

After much national attention about the dietary supplement ephedra, which was linked to injuries and deaths, Congress in 2006 passed a law to require that dietary supplement manufacturers report adverse effects–which passed the Senate by unanimous consent. (Public Law No: 109-462). However, the FDA still lacks the resources and authority to protect consumers from unsafe dietary supplements, according to a May 2009 GAO report.

Grassley has also earned plaudits from the alternative health community for co-sponsoring legislation to permit doctors to use any treatment a patient wants–including unapproved therapies or medications. (S 2618, 2006). And he’s gotten cheers from the American Chiropractic Association for serving as “one of chiropractic’s strongest allies.”

In 1998, the senator co-sponsored legislation to expand an alternative health care program at the National Institutes of Health; the new office became known as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.  (S. 2420, funded as part of omnibus spending bill, H.R.4328) Since 1999, the office has spent $2.5 billion on studies exploring such topics as the effectiveness of ginkgo biloba for improving memory and shark cartilage for treating cancer. (Neither proved any better than placebos).

Grassley has managed to secure some money from the center for projects in his home state of Iowa. In 2007, he announced that the NIH office was giving $191,672 to Drake University for a project called “Reproductive and Behavioral Effects of Genistein,” which is exploring whether soy products eaten by pregnant women have a harmful effect on male fetal development. Another grant, for $110, 592, went to the Palmer College of Chriopractic in Davenport, for a project called “Expanding [Evidence Based Medicine] and Research Across the Palmer College of Chiropractic.” In 2002, the senator helped steer $110,250 to the University of Iowa to study the “neurobiology of joint manipulation induced analgesia,” as reported by the Associated Press. (Translation: that means pain relief from manipulating the body rather than using drugs.)

Unlike Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who are also champions of the alternative health industry, Grassley has not collected large amounts in campaign contributions from the nutritional and dietary supplement industries in the past, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

[Intern Josh Heath contributed research to this post.]

The fundraising invitations are piling up for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s May 18th performance at the Verizon Center. We’ve got five so far, all for Democrats. (We just got one in for Rep. Baron Hill, which is not in the database yet.) The requested contributions heftier than what I paid to see the Boss when he swung through Denver a few weeks ago, ranging from $1,000 to $2,500.

Rock concerts are a popular fundraising choice for members of Congress, as I wrote back in January. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen an invitation coming over the Party Time transom for a fundraiser at an opera or a performance by a string quartet.