WASHINGTON — Despite new House travel restrictions, lawmakers accepted free trips worth nearly $1.9 million during the first eight months of this year — more than in all of 2006, records show.

The amount of travel lawmakers take at the expense of private groups typically declines in an election year, but last year it dramatically fell. Stung by scandals, lawmakers worried about re-election cut in half the amount of privately funded travel they took to $1.7 million, according to CQ MoneyLine, a nonpartisan group that tracks congressional travel.

The chill thawed this August, when lawmakers took 85 trips worth $828,808 — the highest since August 2003.

This year's trips cost more than twice as much, as trips fell from 588 in the first eight months of 2006 to 337 over that period this year. House members accounted for $1.8 million of the travel.

Congress took steps to eliminate luxury trips with lobbyists, restricting — not banning — travel paid by outside groups. The House enacted travel rules in March; similar restrictions are scheduled to take effect in the Senate next month.

Under new House rules, companies or groups with lobbyists can't provide more than a one-night stay for a lawmaker — or two nights for long-distance trips. Lawmakers took 30 trips under the exemption.

In all, 22 House Democrats and three Republicans accepted nearly $40,000 in travel under that exemption, according to reports filed with the House ethics committee.

The new rules require the House ethics committee to pre-approve the travel and make more details about the trips publicly available, said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Other trips under the one-day exemption included: