BNUMBER:  B-254837.2
DATE:  January 16, 1996
TITLE:  Christine G. Davis-Reconsideration

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Matter of:Christine G. Davis-Reconsideration

File:     B-254837.2

Date:   January 16, 1996 

DIGEST

An employee was authorized travel for herself and her two young 
children to her new duty station by her privately owned vehicle at the 
rate applicable to an employee and two dependents, 19 cents per mile.  
She made an initial trip to the new duty station alone and a week 
later made a second trip to bring her two children to her new duty 
station.  The employee's entitlement became fixed upon the initial 
travel to and reporting for duty at the new station, for which she may 
be reimbursed mileage at the rate applicable to an employee traveling 
alone, 15 cents per mile.  The employee may not be reimbursed for 
herself for any subsequent trips to her old duty station after 
reporting for duty at her new station.  However, she is entitled to be 
reimbursed on a constructive basis at 4 cents per mile (the difference 
between the single rate and the rate she would have received if the 
dependents had accompanied her initially) for the trip transporting 
her children to her new duty station.  The total reimbursement for 
both trips may not exceed the cost of one trip at 19 cents per mile 
from the old to the new station.  Christine G. Davis, B-254837, May 
27, 1994, is modified.

DECISION

The Department of Agriculture requests reconsideration of our 
decision, Christine G. Davis, B-254837, May 27, 1994, which involved 
several claims incident to Ms. Davis's transfer from Cassville, 
Missouri, to Heavener, Oklahoma.  Only a claim for travel expenses is 
at issue here.[1]

Incident to her transfer, Ms. Davis, who is an employee of the Food 
Safety and Inspection Service, Department of Agriculture, received 
travel orders authorizing the use of her privately owned vehicle (POV) 
for her and her two children's travel to her new duty station.  The 
travel order stated, "Mileage for use of privately-owned automobile 
for transportation of employee and members of his (sic) immediate 
family, as follows:  .19 cents per mile when three travel."  On May 
26, 1992, Ms. Davis traveled alone from her residence near Berryville, 
Arkansas, which is about 33 miles southeast of her old duty station at 
Cassville, to her new duty station, a distance of about 190 miles.  
(The record does not include the exact mileage.)  A week later, she 
traveled to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, which is near her old duty 
station, to pick up her two children (aged about 4 years and 7 months, 
respectively) and transport them to her new duty station.[2]  Ms. 
Davis did not submit a travel claim for her initial trip to her new 
duty station, but did claim mileage for the second trip at the 
prescribed rate for an employee traveling with two family members, 19 
cents per mile.  See Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) 41 C.F.R.  
302-2.3(b) (1994).

In our initial decision, we allowed reimbursement for the second trip, 
noting that the Federal Travel Regulation does not specify that the 
only trip the employee may use for personal relocation travel must be 
the one-way trip made to report for duty at the new station.  
Christine G. Davis, supra, at 3.

The agency, however, questions whether that holding is consistent with 
our decision in George W. Lacey III, 64 Comp. Gen. 801 (1985), and 
decisions cited therein.  The agency notes that those decisions hold 
that when the employee reports to and enters on duty at the new duty 
station, the change of station is accomplished, his or her travel 
expenses reimbursement becomes fixed, and reimbursement on the basis 
of subsequent trips between the old and new stations is not 
authorized.

OPINION

The travel and transportation benefits available to federal employees 
transferred in the interest of the government are authorized by 5 
U.S.C.  5724 (1988), and the FTR at 41 C.F.R. Part 302-2 (1994).  
These provisions authorize agencies to reimburse employees for the 
expense of their travel and for that of members of their immediate 
families in reporting to a new duty station by such means as may be 
authorized.  The allowable costs may not exceed the costs of travel by 
the usually traveled route from the old station to the new station by 
the mode of travel authorized.  FTR  302-2.2(a); Gary E. Pike, 
B-209727, July 12, 1983; Huai Su, B-215701, Dec. 3, 1984.  While 
generally all travel and transportation to the new duty station, 
including that of the immediate family, is to be accomplished as soon 
as possible, when travel is delayed for acceptable compelling reasons, 
the right to reimbursement will not be affected.  M.K. Farnsworth, 
B-183563, May 4, 1976.  The regulations allow a maximum of 2 years 
from the effective date of the employee's transfer for the immediate 
family to begin such travel.  FTR  302-1.6.

When the use of a POV is authorized, the FTR provides that the mileage 
rate will be based on the number of occupants in the vehicle.  FTR  
302-2.3.  Here, the agency authorized a rate of 19 cents per mile, 
which was the applicable rate for an employee traveling with two 
immediate family members.  The rate for an employee, traveling alone, 
would have been 15 cents per mile.

In the Lacey case, cited by the agency, after the employee and his 
family completed the transfer, the employee returned to his old duty 
station and flew back in his privately owned aircraft.  The employee 
did not submit a claim for the initial mileage expenses that he 
incurred in reporting to his duty station, but instead submitted the 
expenses from the trip using his private aircraft.  We denied his 
claim, holding, in effect, that he could not substitute the travel by 
his aircraft for the mileage expenses he incurred when he first 
reported to his duty station.

As the agency notes, we stated in Lacey and the cases cited therein, 
"when a transferred employee reports to and enters on duty at his new 
duty station, the change of station authorized in the travel order is 
accomplished and his travel expense reimbursement becomes fixed."  64 
Comp. Gen. at 802 (emphasis added).  Thus on this basis, when Ms. 
Davis completed her initial trip to her new duty station, her travel 
was accomplished and her expense reimbursement for that travel became 
fixed at the 15 cents-per-mile rate.  To the extent that our May 27, 
1994, decision states differently, it is modified.

Concerning reimbursement for Ms. Davis's subsequent trip to pick up 
her children, as noted above, when an employee's family's travel to 
the new duty station is delayed for acceptable reasons, the employee's 
right to reimbursement for such travel is not affected.  Therefore, 
considering the ages of Ms. Davis's children, we assume that her 
decision to travel alone to report to her new duty station and 
establish temporary quarters was for acceptable reasons, and thus the 
delay in the children's travel did not extinguish her entitlement to 
reimbursement for their travel expenses.  However, her travel orders 
contemplated that Ms. Davis's children would travel with her when she 
first reported for duty at her new duty station.

In a somewhat similar case, when an employee and his wife traveled by 
privately owned automobile from the old to the new duty station, their 
young daughter was unable to accompany them due to illness and 
remained behind in the care of a relative.  She subsequently traveled 
to the new duty station by commercial airline.  In that case we 
authorized reimbursement to the employee for the actual expense of the 
child's travel via airline, but limited to the constructive cost had 
the child traveled with the employee and his wife by POV, the mode 
authorized.  M.K. Farnsworth, supra.[3]  In Ms. Davis's case, although 
only one mode of transportation was used, two trips were made, and we 
think a similar basis for reimbursement is appropriate.

Accordingly, Ms. Davis may be reimbursed 15 cents a mile for her 
initial trip from her Berryville residence to her new duty station and 
she may be reimbursed 4 cents a mile for her trip from Eureka Springs 
to her duty station when she returned with her two children.  This 4 
cents represents the difference between the 15 cents-per-mile rate 
authorized for an employee traveling alone and the 19 cents-per-mile 
rate for an employee traveling with two family members that she would 
have been entitled to receive had she and her children traveled 
together when she first reported for duty at her new duty station.  
However, her total reimbursement may not exceed the total amount for a 
single one-way trip from her old duty station (Cassville) to her new 
duty station (Heavener) by privately-owned automobile at a rate of 19 
cents per mile as authorized by Ms. Davis's travel order and the FTR.

Our previous decision, B-254837, May 27, 1994, is modified 
accordingly.

/s/Seymour Efros
for Robert P. Murphy
General Counsel

1. The authorized certifying officer at the National Finance Center, 
New Orleans, Louisiana, presented the request for reconsideration.

2. On this second trip, Ms. Davis's husband brought the children from 
their residence near Berryville to meet her in Eureka Springs.  Her 
husband was not listed on her travel orders as an immediate family 
member.

3. Farnsworth was modified by William T. Lebo, B-203015, Feb. 19, 
1982, to allow full reimbursement for an employee's dependents' travel 
via common carrier, as authorized by the FTR, and the employee travels 
separately by POV.  Such modification does not affect the result in 
the present case because the dependents did not travel by common 
carrier, and in view of the route traveled and the ages of the 
children, it was clearly contemplated that they would travel by POV 
with the employee.