The White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday
instructed federal agencies to cut fiscal-year 2013 travel expenses by 30
percent from 2010 levels, 10 percentage-points deeper than previously ordered cuts.
Federal agencies "must maintain this reduced level of
spending each year" through fiscal-year 2016, according to a May 11 memo
from Office of Management and Budget acting director Jeff Zients. The memo also
establishes new federal conference spending guidelines while promoting cost
discipline in other indirect spending categories, including fleet management
and real estate.
OMB instructed federal agencies to report within 90 days
their plans to achieve the travel budget cuts. Within 180 days, the Department
of Defense and the General Services Administration will consult with OMB to
review the Joint Federal Travel Regulations and the Federal Travel Regulation
"to ensure that the policies reduce travel costs without impairing the
effective accomplishment of agency missions," according to the memo.
Through that review, officials will seek to
"establish or clarify" a number of federal travel policies, including
requirements for government travelers to share rental cars and taxis "when
appropriate"; per diem practices; the "use of noncontract air
carriers" when it will "result in a lower total trip cost";
lowest logical fare and advance-purchase requirements; and "controls in
place to collect refunds for unused or partially used airline tickets."
To preserve mission-critical travel, OMB noted that
agencies could exclude some expenses from the 30 percent reduction target if
agency heads determine those cuts "would undermine such critical
government functions as national security, international diplomacy, health and
safety inspections, law enforcement or site visits required for oversight or
investigatory purposes."
The OMB memo also outlined tighter controls for
conferences, including the requirement that deputy secretaries of each agency
"review any conference where the agency spending could exceed
$100,000." OMB also will "prohibit agencies from spending over
$500,000 on a conference unless the agency’s secretary approves a waiver."
OMB also will require each agency to annually and publicly
disclose data on full-year conference spending, "including descriptions of
agency conferences that cost more than $100,000."
The directive comes a few weeks after the House and Senate
passed separate bills to cut and freeze for the next five years some federal
travel and meeting spending—apparently in response to a controversial 2010 GSA
event held in Las Vegas, which also resulted in several congressional hearings
and the resignation of GSA administrator Martha Johnson. Those bills, like the
OMB directive, included prohibitions on spending more than $500,000 on a single
meeting, among other edicts.
Responding to the congressional bills, industry lobbying
group U.S. Travel Association last week proposed that, in lieu of spending
cuts, federal agencies should "report all conference-related expenditures
and conference contracting procedures to its inspector general at the end of
each fiscal year" and "ensure that agencies select conference
locations based solely on cost-effectiveness by permanently eliminating the
'blacklisting' of American cities for government conferences and
meetings."
USTA released its proposal before OMB issued its
directive, but USTA director of domestic policy Erik Hansen on Monday told BTN
there were some similarities.
"A lot of the proposals that the White House issued
on Friday are very similar to our proposals to increase and strengthen
oversight," Hansen said. "It's very easy to see one government
conference that had excessive spending and took place outside of the rules and
say that there must be others. As a result, you cut federal travel budgets and
conference spending across the entire government. We get concerned when we see
proposals that slash the federal travel budget without the thoughtful analysis
of where the government can cut back first. It's the across-the board cuts that
we're concerned with."
OMB's updated travel spending guidance "builds upon
work already underway to scrutinize travel and conference budgets,"
according to the memo. OMB in September, for example, directed agency leaders
to review travel and meetings spending. That resulted in "plans to achieve
nearly $1.2 billion in travel and conference savings." OMB also noted that
the Department of Homeland Security has achieved "more than $13 million in
travel cost avoidance"; the State Department now holds the
"majority" of its conferences in government facilities instead of
hotels; and the Department of Agriculture cut $47 million from its travel
budget "by reducing the number of conferences and increasing the use of
videoconference technology." Such efforts have contributed to $280 million
in year-over-year savings in the first three months this year, according to OMB.
Hansen said USTA would continue to address both the OMB
directive and the congressional bills. "First, we'll continue efforts to
make sure that proposals in Congress are not overreactions, and we'll work with
them to make sure that if they still see the need to legislate on this topic
that they do so responsibly," he said. "Second, we'll work with the
administration to address some of our concerns with its proposal. There are
some requirements in OMB's memo to publicly post conference spend. We want to
make sure anything they post will not impact competition or disclose
price-sensitive material in contracts."