Federal agencies that fail to reimburse employees for travel expenses within 30 days would have to pay the employees a late fee, under a bill the Senate passed this week.
Under the 1998 Travel and Transportation Reform Act (H.R. 930), federal employees would also be required to use government charge cards for most travel expenses. Some exemptions would be allowed.
The House passed the act more than a year ago, but its version does not include the reimbursement rule. Under the Senate version, the General Services Administration would set a late fee agencies would have to pay employees if the agencies did not reimburse them within a month.
"Taxpayers should not have to pay for government inefficiency," said Sen. Fred Thompson, Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman. "Nor should federal employees provide Uncle Sam interest-free loans while waiting for agencies to reimburse them for official travel expenses because of poor bookkeeping."
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill would reimburse certain employees for travel-related income tax charges they have incurred. A change in tax law in 1992 reduced the time limit for deducting business-related travel expenses from a maximum of two years to a maximum of a year.
The bill now goes back to the House now for consideration of the Senate's changes.
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