The latest — and maybe the last — ranking of privately funded congressional travel shows that U.S. Rep. Phil English of Erie came in at No. 5, with $195,711 over a period covering more than five years.

English’s ranking — which is based on the total dollar amount — is out of 648 current and former members of Congress.

English, R-3rd Dist., has been near the top of PoliticalMoneyLine’s list before, as high as third for accepting privately financed gifts of travel, lodging and meals. PoliticalMoneyLine is a Web-based tracking service on politics and money.

Most of the trips in the latest ranking, including those to San Francisco, Paris and Barcelona, were previously reported by the Erie Times-News.

English’s press secretary, Julia Wanzco, said in a statement that her boss’ nontaxpayer-funded travel has included a series of educational conferences, inter-parliamentary exchanges, and at least one speaking engagement that were fully disclosed and fully related to his congressional job.

The PoliticalMoneyLine reports are based on the members’ own travel-expense filings. Privately paid travel is permitted under congressional rules, as long as a lobbyist or representative of a foreign interest doesn’t pay for it.

Congressional Quarterly, which bought the Web service about one year ago, dropped the rankings when it launched the service’s new Web site earlier this month. But an account manager with CQ said user demand could lead to a restoration of the rankings, which sounds like a no-brainer.

— John Guerriero