Actions by federal agencies last year to reduce business travel amid government sequestration had some unintended consequences—both positive and negative—according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report issued last week. Of nine "personnel and related actions" taken by 23 federal agencies examined in the report, reduced employee travel occurred at all but two agencies, the National Science Foundation and the Office of Personnel Management.
In the case of the State Department, GAO found that "reduced travel spending due to sequestration limited their oversight capacity. For example, the State inspector general reported that sequestration limited its ability to travel to high-threat overseas posts to evaluate their physical security, which has been a high priority since the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya."
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy's inspector general told GAO that "sequestration-related travel constraints directly affected [DOE's] ability to conduct audits, inspections and investigations due to the need to travel to remote DOE sites and facilities."
On a positive note, the Treasury Department reported that measures taken for sequestration will continue to prove "useful in the future," according to GAO. For example, Treasury's departmental offices "instituted a centralized travel review process in response to sequestration and plan to continue the effort. The process encouraged more scrutiny of travel needs and expenses and also provided more consistency around travel policy in various departmental offices." Treasury also continued cost-cutting initiatives begun before sequestration, including more virtual training.
In its report, prepared for the House of Representatives Committee on the Budget, GAO described a few other agencies' travel reductions, some of which also began before sequestration. For example, the Department of Transportation in summer 2012 identified nearly $47 million in annual travel costs that would be cut from the Federal Aviation Administration's budget.
Meanwhile, the Small Business Administration "was able to implement sequestration without furloughs because it previously reduced personnel costs," according to GAO. For fiscal year 2012, it reported $1.5 million in savings by reducing travel. "SBA prioritized travel related to oversight over other travel, which enabled it to conduct travel necessary for oversight of small business eligibility for and participation in certain contracting programs."
At the Social Security Administration, cost-cutting that began in 2011 helped the agency absorb necessary sequestration reductions and avoid furloughs. For example, SSA reported to GAO that it has since cut about $30 million in travel expenses and "reduced agency-sponsored conferences from 113 in fiscal year 2010 to 13 in fiscal year 2012, saving almost $7 million."