BNUMBER:  B-235163.11
DATE:  February 13, 1996
TITLE:  National Science Foundation Annual Awards Dinner

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Matter of: National Science Foundation Annual Awards Dinner

File:     B-235163.11

Date:     February 13, 1996

DIGEST

The National Science Foundation may use its salaries and expenses 
appropriation for dinner-related expenses and travel expenses for the 
awardee and his/her spouse incurred in connection with the 
presentation of the statutorily established Alan T. Waterman Award at 
the National Science Board's annual awards dinner.

DECISION

The National Science Foundation (Foundation) asks whether it may use 
its salaries and expenses appropriation, without regard to reception 
and representation or donated funds, to defray part of the cost of the 
National Science Board's (Board) annual awards dinner.  The Foundation 
also asks whether it may use its salaries and expenses appropriation 
to defray part of the cost of travel and per diem for the awardee, and 
his or her spouse, of the statutorily established Alan T. Waterman 
Award.  For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that the 
Foundation may use its salaries and expenses appropriation to defray 
part of the cost of the awards dinner and the travel and per diem 
expenses of the awardee and his or her spouse.

BACKGROUND

The National Science Foundation consists of a 24-member National 
Science Board and a director.  By statute, the Board meets annually in 
May.  42 U.S.C.  sec.  1863(e).  Since 1960, the Board has hosted a dinner 
at its annual meetings which has become known as the Board's annual 
awards dinner. Beginning in 1977, the dinner has featured the 
presentation of the statutorily created Alan T. Waterman Award.  More 
recently, the Board has used the annual awards dinner to present two 
administratively created awards-the Vannevar Bush and the National 
Science Foundation Distinguished Service awards.  Letter from the 
Foundation's Inspector General to the Comptroller General, Mar. 25, 
1994.

The Waterman Award is a statutorily established award.[1]  The purpose 
of the award is to recognize and encourage the work of younger 
scientists in research and advanced study in the mathematical, 
physical, medical, biological, engineering, social or other sciences.  
42 U.S.C.  sec.  1881a(a),(b) (1992).  The award consists of a "suitable 
medal" and a research grant of up to $50,000 per year for not to 
exceed    3 years.  42 U.S.C. sec.  1881a(a) (1992).

According to the Foundation's Inspector General, the Board spent a 
total of $18,865.96 on the awards dinner for 1993:  $16,620.60 for 
dinner-related expenses, including rent for the site of the dinner, 
printing, and catering; and $2,245.36 for the travel expenses and per 
diem of the awardee and her spouse.  Of the total amount spent, the 
Foundation paid all but $5,372.60 from subscriptions[2] and donated 
funds.[3]

Typically, Board members and representatives from scientific 
organizations and corporations pay for themselves and their guests.  
The Board, however, does not ask awardees, their families and guests, 
Foundation employees, their spouses and guests, Members of Congress 
and their staffs, media representatives and other executive branch 
employees to subscribe.

Out of a total 1993 attendance of 169 persons, 65 paid, including the 
Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
and his wife and representatives of private associations.  Of the 27 
Board members in attendance, 26 paid, as did 7 of 9 former Board 
members.  When the Board found that subscriptions and other donations 
were not sufficient to defray the total costs of the dinner, the Board 
applied appropriated funds from the Foundation's salary and expense 
account to cover the shortfall ($5,372.60).

ANALYSIS

The legal issues raised by this matter are whether the Foundation may 
use its salaries and expenses appropriation to cover dinner expenses 
of Board members, Foundation employees and guests at the Board's 
annual awards dinner, and whether the Foundation may use the same 
appropriation to pay the costs of the awardee's and her spouse's 
travel and per diem expenses.  While the Foundation applied its 
appropriation to defray a shortfall in subscriptions and donated 
funds, an audit by the Foundation's Inspector General showed that 
except in two instances, no federal employee paid for his or her meal; 
most nonfederal employees in attendance paid except for the awardee 
and her spouse, former award recipients, and members of the Waterman 
family.

As a general rule, appropriated funds are not available for the costs 
associated with dinners, because meals and other such expenses are 
considered personal in nature. 65 Comp. Gen. 16 (1985); 47 Comp. Gen. 
657 (1968).  Accordingly, the decisions of the accounting officers of 
the government have required congressional authorization before agency 
appropriations may be used for such expenses.  B-223678, June 5, 1989.

The Government Employees' Incentive Awards Act, 5 U.S.C.  sec.  4501-4506, 
is an often used example of such authority.  The Incentive Awards Act 
authorized agencies to "incur necessary expenses for the honorary 
recognition of employees."  5 U.S.C.  sec.  4503.  We have interpreted this 
language to permit agencies to use operating appropriations to pay for 
refreshments and meals in connection with agency employee awards 
ceremonies.  65 Comp. Gen. 738, 740 (1986) (Social Security 
Administration's annual awards ceremony).  We explained our rationale 
as follows:

     "Clearly the statutory objective will be better met by presenting 
     an award along with a measure of public recognition, rather than 
     anonymously depositing it in the recipient's in-box.  Once we 
     have said this, it becomes apparent that an awards ceremony is 
     different from an agency's typical day-to-day conduct of official 
     business.  It is by its very nature and purpose, for lack of a 
     better term, 'ceremonial.'  It should therefore not stretch the 
     imagination to conclude that certain things-such as 
     refreshments-which would be inappropriate in other contexts, 
     might be appropriate as part of a ceremonial function."  Id.

See also B-167835, Nov. 18, 1969 (NASA banquet honoring Apollo 11 
astronauts).

Presentation of the Waterman Award is a statutory function of the 
Foundation.[4]   42 U.S.C.  sec.  1881a.  The Foundation's authorizing 
legislation authorizes it "to make such expenditures as may be 
necessary" to carry out its functions.  42 U.S.C.  sec.  1870(b). The 
Foundation points out that the prescribed purpose of the award is 
two-fold: to recognize and to encourage the work of young scientists.  
42 U.S.C.  sec.  1881a(b). Citing our Incentive Awards Act decisions noted 
above, the Board maintains that in order to achieve the statutory 
objectives of providing both recognition and encouragement, a dinner 
meeting, attended by those prominent in the research community, is 
"patently the only forum filling this bill."  Accordingly, the 
Foundation considers the costs of meals and refreshments at the annual 
awards dinner a necessary expense of its operating appropriation. 

As noted above, the Foundation is authorized "to make such 
expenditures as may be necessary" to carry out its functions.  42 
U.S.C.  sec.  1870(b).  We have described the concept of a "necessary 
expense" as a relative one, "measured not by reference to an 
expenditure in a vacuum, but by assessing the relationship of the 
expenditure to the specific appropriation to be charged."  65 Comp. 
Gen. at 740.  We also have afforded the agencies reasonable discretion 
to decide how to spend their operating appropriations to satisfy their 
statutory duties.  We agree with the Foundation's assessment of the 
purposes of the Waterman Award.  The $50,000 grant that accompanies 
the Waterman Award would certainly seem to encourage the work of 
younger scientists and would carry with it, we presume, a certain 
degree of recognition.  The Foundation's decision to enhance the 
recognition value of the award and its recipients by presenting it at 
an annual awards dinner attended by those prominent in the research 
community does not in the context of the purpose of the Waterman Award 
seem unreasonable.  Resolved in light of the statutory objectives 
sought to be achieved and given the Board's determination that its 
annual awards dinner is the appropriate and necessary vehicle to 
accomplish these objectives, we do not object to the Foundation's use 
of its operating appropriation to finance part of the dinner.  We 
would recommend, however, that the Foundation disclose in its budget 
submissions the amount of its appropriation used to defray the cost of 
the awards dinner.

Travel and Per Diem of Awardees and Spouses 

As a general proposition, agency appropriations are not available to 
pay for the travel, transportation and subsistence expenses of private 
parties.  31 U.S.C.  sec.  1345. We have previously recognized that the 
authority to make an award carries with it the authority to incur 
necessary expenses that will contribute to effectively achieving the 
purpose of the award.  65 Comp. Gen. 738.  In this regard, we have 
concluded that the travel expenses for an awardee, 32 Comp. Gen. 134 
(1957), and for an awardee's spouse, 69 Comp. Gen. 38, 39 (1989), are 
appropriate expenses of an awards ceremony.  Having concluded that an 
awards ceremony at the Board's annual dinner meeting is an appropriate 
vehicle for presentation of the Waterman Award, we view the cost of 
the awardee's and his or her spouse's travel and per diem as a 
necessary expense of the Foundation's operating appropriation. 

/s/Robert P. Murphy
for Comptroller General 
of the United States      

1. In its entirety, the statute establishing the Waterman Award, 42 
U.S.C.  sec.  1881a, reads as follows:
Alan T. Waterman Award

Establishment; amount

(a) The National Science Foundation is authorized to establish the 
Alan T. Waterman Award for research or advanced study in the 
mathematical, physical, medical, biological, engineering, social, or 
other sciences.  The award authorized by this section shall consist of 
a suitable medal and a grant not to exceed $50,000 per year for a 
period not to exceed three years to support further research or study 
by the recipient.
      
Purpose

(b) Awards under this section shall be made to recognize and encourage 
the work of younger scientists whose capabilities and accomplishments 
show exceptional promise of significant future achievement.

Number

(c) No more than one award shall be made under this section in any one 
fiscal year.

2. The Board asks many invitees to pay $100 each to attend, or 
"subscribe" to, the dinner.

3. The Foundation is authorized to receive and use funds donated by 
others.         42 U.S.C.  sec.  1870(f).  The Foundation may use such 
funds for entertainment expenses when it determines such expenditures 
are necessary to carry out its authorized functions and such use of 
the funds is consistent with the terms of the donation.   B-142538, 
Feb. 8, 1961.

4. The Board also presents two other awards at its annual awards 
dinner.  The Board established the two awards pursuant to the 
Government Employees' Incentive Awards Act.