The General Services Administration this month proposed the General Services Enhancement Act of 2008, which, if passed by Congress, would allow government agencies to mandate which hotels their travelers use. Currently, agencies are prohibited from ordering employees to stay at selected hotels, but GSA hopes to increase its "efficiency and effectiveness" by requiring use of hotels covered either by the FedRooms lodging program or other government contracts.
The proposal also addresses issues of mileage reimbursement, travel payment for a federal employee's family members during emergencies, telecommuting expense programs and child care and property tax reform. GSA acknowledged that the proposal encompasses numerous provisions that need modification. It was presented to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and has yet to be sponsored.
"It is going to be subject to how much support there is for it and how much interest there is on the part of Congress," said Marc Stec, president of the Society of Government Travel Professionals. "We haven't developed a clear-cut position."
Because it includes a wide array of topics, it could hit more than one snag on its way through Congress, according to Brian McNicoll, spokesperson for the committee's ranking minority leader Thomas Davis (R-Va.). "Pieces of it might happen this year, but a lot of the proposal deserves a close look at many of the provisions. It's hard to say [if it will push through]. My guess would be that the nuts and bolts of the act could pass without a lot of controversy."
If the proposal is approved, the requirement for government travelers to book through the FedRooms program could cause some difficulty in managing a workable government travel program, said Robert Langsfeld, Corporate Solutions Group partner. The GSA lodging per diem rates are significantly below the average daily rates--and corporate rates--especially in large cities like New York and Washington, D.C. Requiring government travelers to use contracted rates would limit the number of properties they can choose from.
"It would certainly give a lot more clout to the [FedRooms] program, but I'm not sure what the impact will be," said Langsfeld. "It might be more than inconvenient to the traveler and the suppliers." Suppliers would continue to accommodate the government traveler, but room availability may decline because accepting government per diem rates well below the average daily rate may be detrimental to the hotel industry, especially during a recession.
"If the [per diem] prices don't change dramatically, the biggest benefit here seems to be for GSA," Langsfeld concluded.
The FedRooms program covers about 6,000 U.S. hotel properties, but has only recently made some headway in such high-demand cities as New York and Washington, D.C. "The way I see it, the act is trying to remove the old wording," said FedRooms director Brenda Lee Schultz. "The FedRooms program will definitely benefit because there will be more utilization of the program." She added that more hotels already are opting to adopt the FedRooms program because the per diems are greater than in the past.
Schultz attributed the increase in hotel acceptance to the FedRooms program to the softening of the market. As many corporations cut travel costs due to the declining economy, government agencies are not feeling the same pressure because the government rates are much more controlled than ever-rising corporate rates.
In addition to a new FedRooms policy, the proposal would require GSA to adopt Internal Revenue Service rates for business travel-related mileage reimbursement, eliminating any discrepancies between GSA and IRS rates.
"GSA is one of the primary gears to making the federal government work," said Kevin Messner, GSA associate administrator of congressional and intergovernmental affairs. "[The act] will make the federal government work better for the country."