Rep. "Duke" Cunningham in a whole heap o' trouble!

He also received campaign contributions from BNFL and one of its employees.

BNFL won a $6.9 billion federal contract in 1998 to convert 54 million gallons of nuclear waste into glass for permanent storage. The contract was promoted by Hastings, who offered amendments to the Defense Authorization Act to pay for Hanford projects, including BNFL work.

But in October 1998, the General Accounting Office began questioning the contract as too lucrative for the company. Hastings continued to defend the contract.

The trip to the U.K. took place in January 2000. Four months later, the Department of Energy abruptly terminated the BNFL deal when it learned the cost could soar to $15.2 billion.

The 2004 trip to Stuart Island was paid for by the Washington Group International, according to the Web site PoliticalMoneyLine. Washington Group International, based in Idaho, is a major contractor with the U.S. government in Iraq and also is involved in the Hanford cleanup. The company was Hastings' top contributor to his 2004 re-election, giving $10,200.

Hastings, accompanied by a family member, spoke at an energy symposium during the $3,170 trip.

The ethics committee has been stalled for six weeks. Democrats, led by ranking member Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, declined to meet after Hastings proposed making his longtime chief of staff, Ed Cassidy, staff director for the committee.

Mollohan said that violates rules that say professional staffers who take part in investigations of House members must be nonpartisan and elected by committee members.

"I don't think it's possible to make the rule clearer," he said. "It is very simple."

Because the committee isn't meeting, "issues are piling up," said longtime political writer Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. "You have the DeLay issue and several others involving lobbyists' payments and gifts to other Republicans."

There's also the long-standing issue involving Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, who leaked an illegal recording of a cellphone call by another congressman.

Hastings was named chairman of the ethics committee in February, after Republicans ousted their colleague Rep. Joel Hefley of Colorado. Hefley had led several investigations of previous allegations involving DeLay, resulting in three admonitions from the committee.

Published reports this week said Hastings is fed up with continuing unfavorable publicity and calls for him to step aside as chairman.

"It's time he stepped down and appointed an independent counsel to clear up these investigations," Common Cause press secretary Mary Boyle said.

But Mollohan disagrees. "We need to be able to show that Congress can investigate itself and demand appropriate behavior. If we can't make our own committee work, what does it say about our commitment to ethics?"