[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 124 (Friday, September 14, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             GOVERNMENT SPENDING ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2012

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                               speech of

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 11, 2012

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I think we can all 
agree that federal agencies need to be wise and judicious in their use 
of travel funds, and that past abuses, while very much the exception, 
were a wake-up call for us to exercise stricter oversight of taxpayer 
dollars. The Administration itself, through the Office of Management 
and Budget, OMB, has also sought to curb these abuses by instituting 
new travel caps and new reporting requirements on all agency travel and 
I applaud them for taking this seriously.
  On the face of it, OMB's directives seem reasonable to most of us, 
although there is room for debate even here. The scientific community, 
which includes tens of thousands of federal scientists at agencies such 
as the Department of Energy and NASA, depend on face-to-face 
interaction through conferences and workshops to foster innovation and 
launch new scientific directions. The community, therefore, is 
rightfully concerned about the unintended consequences of these 
restrictions stifling innovation and stunting economic growth by 
preventing federal scientists from participating fully in scientific 
exchanges with their fellow scientists and engineers from across the 
country and the world. So I hope OMB follows closely the impact of 
their own rules as they are implemented.
  Today, however, I speak to the shockingly onerous requirements in 
H.R. 4631. While OMB's new directives have a $100,000 trigger for 
reporting on any given conference, in this bill, there is no trigger 
for the excessive laundry list of reporting requirements. And to be 
sure we understand each other, a conference is defined in this bill as 
``a meeting, retreat, seminar, symposium, or event to which an employee 
travels 25 miles or more to attend, that is held for consultation, 
education, discussion, or training; and is not held entirely at a 
Government facility.'' Imagine, then, the very real and very common 
situation in which a USGS scientist in Reston travels by personal 
vehicle to a meeting about earthquakes with other agency and non-
federal scientists at a non-governmental site such as the American 
Geophysical Union headquarters in DC. That USGS scientist is entitled 
to reimbursement for fuel mileage for that trip. Are we really going to 
pay that scientist and other agency staff to do a complete cost-benefit 
analysis and meet all of the other reporting requirements in this bill 
over a $30 expense? It seems to me that the additional bureaucratic 
resources necessary to meet this requirement will require far more than 
a $30 reimbursement for gas.
  Colleagues, I cannot imagine a more inefficient, bureaucratic, 
wasteful system than the one set up in this bill. If the goal is to 
make it so hard for any agency scientist to travel anywhere, anytime, 
for any purpose, then mission accomplished. But let us not 
underestimate the consequences this will have on the free and open 
exchange of scientific and technical knowledge and understanding 
between federal and non-federal scientists and for the innovation and 
economic benefits that follow. Nor let us underestimate the 
consequences this has for the ability of science agencies such as the 
National Science Foundation to conduct proper oversight of the several 
billion dollars in grants it awards to university scientists and 
engineers, because this bill also applies to program managers.
  I urge my colleagues on the Committee on Oversight and Government 
Reform to address these concerns as the bill moves forward.

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