Members of Congress don’t take as many trips at others’ expense as they once did, given recently tightened ethics rules, several high-profile scandals and the continued prospect of eyebrow-raised news coverage.

Departing lawmakers, though, generally aren’t bound by the same sort of public relations considerations. So it may be somewhat surprising that of the five senators and 26 House members who are leaving voluntarily at the end of the year, only eight (all Republicans) have been on out-of-town trips not paid for by the federal government since announcing their retirements.

Generally, such voyages must be approved in advance by the ethics committees and have a cultural or economic purpose. The top destination has been Taiwan; one House GOP retiree went in March, and two more traveled there in May just as a new president, Ma Ying-jeou was being inaugurated, even though Congress was in session at the time.

The United States ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 as a precondition of recognizing mainland China.