GSA’s lavish meeting brings congressional wrath

Meeting planners were afraid this would happen. And it did.

The US Congress in the wake of the GSA (General Services Administration)’s much-condemned lavish meeting has voted to cut and freeze travel spending by government agencies for five years and other oversight measures.

As passed by the US House and the Senate, the measure would cap travel spending by government agencies at 80% of their 2010 level through 2016.

In separate bills, amendments would:

 ï·         Reduce the amount a federal agency can spend on conferences to 80 percent of the amount spent in 2010;

ï·         Cap the amount that a federal agency can spend on a single conference at $500,000;

ï·         Require federal agencies to publish on the Internet details of their conference spending for each quarter, including costs for lodging, planning, food and beverages;

ï·         Limit the number of government employees who can attend international conferences; and

ï·         Limit the number of non-governmental conferences that federal agencies can sponsor or attend.

The GSA’s controversial meeting was in 2010 at the M Resort Spa Casino just outside Las Vegas.

"GSA spending on conference planning was excessive, wasteful, and in some cases impermissible," a report found.

Wasteful spending included $44 per person for breakfast and another $30,000  —  or roughly $94-per-person  —  for the closing reception and dinner.

"Needless to say, these (federal government) developments could have a significant impact on the federal government’s ability to host and participate in conferences," noted the US Travel Association.

In addition, these amendments could impact private sector conferences that include government speakers or attendees, and discourage necessary dialogues between the public and private sectors, US Travel added.

"We are already seeing these kinds of impacts on government conferences," the group says.

The GSA recently canceled its participation in the Global Business Travel Association’s Travel Forum conference in Phoenix  —  causing the entire conference to be postponed. It is ironic that the topic of this event was to share best practices with the government on efficient and cost-effective travel procurement.

But perhaps even more ironic is the fact that the GSA has long been known for successfully reporting on excessive government travel spending.

US Travel says it will continue to engage Congressional leaders on the value of meetings, conferences, and government travel, and reinforce that instances of excessive spending on travel are the result of poor decision-making and a failure to follow federal travel regulations.

Various House and Senate bills will have to be reconciled before they can be sent to President Obama for his approval or veto  —  with the later an unlikely development.

By David Wilkening