TOPICS
TOPICS
Lawmakers fight policies limiting conferences in resort destinations
Lawmakers representing popular vacation destinations are mounting a fight against policies that allegedly discourage agencies from holding conferences in resort areas.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday sent a letter to agency heads asking them to reverse any policies discriminating against particular cities as conference destinations. And Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has proposed legislation to make such policies illegal.
"Now more than ever, taxpayer dollars need to be spent wisely and should maximize benefit to the government," Reid wrote in a July 27 letter. "By following these principles -- and ignoring ill-conceived biases or perceptions about resort destinations -- our government decision makers will serve the interests of all taxpayers, and Nevada will receive its deserved share of meeting-and-convention business from federal agencies."
Reid said Las Vegas, despite its reputation for luxury, is convenient and offers competitive rates for hotels and conference sites.
His letter to agency leaders followed correspondence with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel seeking the administration's help on clarifying conference policies. In a June 26 letter to Emanuel, Reid noted that Las Vegas businesses told him that they were being hurt by internal government policies. He asked that the administration issue a directive emphasizing agencies cannot rule out conference locations on the basis that they are too leisure oriented. As one example, Reid said the FBI director canceled a scheduled meeting in Las Vegas for another city, pursuant to a new policy.
But Gina Talamona, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, the FBI's parent agency, said Justice did not have any policy restricting travel to Las Vegas.
In response to Reid's inquiry, Emanuel said the administration agreed federal policy should not discourage travel based on a location's reputation. Rather, destinations should be selected after a cost-benefit analysis, he said.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the federal government should lead by example in tightening its belt and justifying its expenditures as we meet the priority challenge of reducing the national deficit and debt," Emanuel wrote. "For me, the test of government travel is what will be accomplished by that travel and whether the cost to the government is reasonable as opposed to other options."
Nelson last week introduced legislation that would prohibit agencies from blacklisting any U.S. city due to its location or reputation. In a statement Nelson said he would try to advance the measure as an amendment to the spending bill of any agency that has a blacklist policy, or to the 2009 Travel Promotion Act. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the Travel Promotion Act, and it now will go to the full Senate.
John Hart, a spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Coburn did not support restricting conference destinations, but was glad agencies were responding to concerns about taxpayer-funded travel to locations with reputations for luxury. Hart added that Coburn -- who frequently criticizes agencies for what he considers excessive conference spending -- cared more about trimming government expenditures than dealing with the perception.
"Dr. Coburn is more concerned with cleaning the inside of the cup, not the outside of the cup," he said.
COMMENTS
- You mean we do not yet have a Czar for Government Conference Planning? My goodness how did that slip through the crack of important and vital economic dealings? Phoenix Posted September 10, 2009 10:00 AM
- Thank you, Charles W. Thompson, John Mc, and TLM for bringing something other than rantings against Feds and how they don't deserve anything to the discussion. I would like to remind bonbon and other Grinches than, surprisingly, Feds are taxpayers also. My husband and I probably fund 3 hours a day of my time through our taxes. I am extremely aware of wasting taxpayer funds. Video conferencing is good for certain types of learning, but it is not useful for everything. Have you ever tried to sit for hours in a darkened room (so you can see the monitor clearly) or have people chiming in from 5 different locations at once such that you don't understand a thing? It is human nature that once you break bread with someone (or a drink in the bar) that you can create useful, productive relationships. I have been to many conferences over the years. I can honestly say that I learned a lot from my peers across the country each time, even when I was the conference leader. No one ever knows it all. I became a better, more productive and efficient employee. That is what training does--helps leverage taxpayer dollars. I would like to address a side component that has not been overtly mentioned. Feds are paid for their 40 hours a week (assuming no AWS). They are NOT paid for their time beyond that. And frankly, I know more people who get upset that they are being sent to conferences than those who are dying to go because it means time away from their families. It is hard to put a price on that. And why should you begrudge them the opportunity to have some fun and networking opportunities after hours? By extension, you should want to monitor what they do while in their home location. I have attended 3-4 conferences in Las Vegas in 20 years. I spent next to no money gambling because, firstly, I do not have much of an inclination to gamble, and secondly, they are too damned smoky. More often than not, after conference hours were spent with groups of people getting together for dinner and putting tip money in the waiters' pockets than down the slots. And what did we talk about? The work we were paid to do during those 40 hour weeks. So as a taxpayers, bonbon and all other Grinches, take some comfort in the fact that the vast majority of conference dollars are NOT wasted. You are actually getting more than you paid for. MizLauraBee Posted September 10, 2009 9:40 AM
- Don't we have a lot more important issues to ponder? I work for the Air Force and drove to Ft. Walton Beach FL about 10 years ago for a Global Air Traffic Management conferenece. It was late March and considerably warmer than Ohio where I work. Upon my return I had several comments about my "boondoggle" to Florida. I never did any "resort" activities the whole time I was there save for routing my return trip through Appalachicola where I'd enver been. I retorted to the naysayers, "Would you have complained if my trip was to Chraleston WVa? I'd have been just as happy to travel there." That shut 'em up. Let it go-work when you have to work and play when you can........ Highwayman Posted September 10, 2009 9:18 AM
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