BNUMBER: B-271612
DATE: January 30, 1997
TITLE: [Letter]
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B-271612
January 30, 1997
Lieutenant General Samuel E. Ebbesen, USA
Chairman, Per Diem, Travel and Transportation
Allowance Committee
Department of Defense
Hoffman Building 1, Room 836
2461 Eisenhower Avenue
Alexandria, Virginia 22331-1300
Dear General Ebbesen:
This responds to your letter dated March 1, 1996, in which you ask our
opinion as to whether the statutes governing educational travel of
student dependents of service members and civilian employees may be
construed to authorize a change in the regulations to permit temporary
storage or shipment of their unaccompanied baggage to an alternate
location in lieu of shipment to and from an overseas location. In our
opinion, the statutes involved would have to be amended to so permit.
Paragraph U5243-A5 of the Joint Federal Travel Regulations (JFTR), and
paragraph C2306 of the Joint Travel Regulations (JTR), provide for
shipment of unaccompanied baggage of student dependents of uniform
members and Department of Defense (DOD) civilian employees who perform
educational travel to and from an overseas residence. The JFTR
provisions are authorized by 37 U.S.C. sec. 430 (1994) and the JTR
provisions are based on section 285.1 of the State Department's
Standardized Regulations (Government Civilians, Foreign Areas), which,
in turn, is authorized by 5 U.S.C. sec. 5924(4)(B) (1994).
You point out that under the above provisions, which are based upon 64
Comp. Gen. 319 (1985), a student dependent may transport unaccompanied
baggage containing the items the student needs at college. This is to
insure that students with parents at overseas locations are not
disadvantaged in comparison with students whose parents live in the
United States and who can move the necessary items to and from school
in vehicles and store the items at home during school breaks.
However, it has been determined that occasionally by the time the
items shipped overseas arrive there, it is time for the student
dependent to return to school. Also, the student dependent may not
have a need for the items to be shipped back overseas because they
duplicate items already available in the family's home. As a result,
the government often incurs transportation expenses merely to satisfy
the college requirement that the student vacate his dormitory room
during the summer recess or other school break. You point out,
however, that neither our decision nor the cited regulations provide
for the temporary storage of these goods in lieu of shipping them to
and from the overseas residence.
Section 430 of title 37, United States Code (1994), provides that a
member of the uniformed services, who is accompanied by dependents
while assigned to a permanent duty station outside the United States
and who has an unmarried dependent under age 23 pursuing a secondary
or undergraduate college education in the United States, may be paid a
transportation allowance for each such dependent for one annual round
trip, either as transportation in kind or reimbursement therefor.
Similar language is contained in 5 U.S.C. sec. 5924(4)(B) (1994)
governing civilian employees.
In decision 64 Comp. Gen. 319, supra, we held that Congress intended
that service members are to have benefits similar to those granted to
civilian employees in like circumstances. Since the focus of each
statute is on reimbursement for "travel expenses" and since a
significant amount of personal belongings over and above those
normally contained in accompanied luggage would be required for an
extensive period such as is involved in a student dependent's trip
from overseas to the United States to attend college, it was our view
that the transportation allowance concept should be construed so as to
permit the adoption of regulations that would include the cost of
transporting unaccompanied baggage in conjunction with that trip.
We note that section 285.1 of the Standardized Regulations (Government
Civilians, Foreign Areas), issued by the Department of State for
civilian employees, authorizes reimbursement for the transportation of
unaccompanied baggage of the student dependent but specifically
provides that "[n]o effects may be stored at Government expense." We
have been advised by State Department officials that they do not
consider the statute authorizing an educational travel allowance for
student dependents of civilian employees as sufficiently broad to
permit either storage of unaccompanied baggage in the United States or
shipment of it to an alternate location in the United States, in lieu
of return shipment to the overseas location.
In 64 Comp. Gen. 319, supra, we stated that Congress intended that the
legislation (37 U.S.C. sec. 430) be applied to provide service members
with benefits similar to those previously granted to civilian
employees. Accordingly, since the two statutes are related and are to
be construed consistently, it is our opinion that the DOD regulations
may not be changed to authorize storage of a student dependent's
unaccompanied baggage or permit shipment of it to an alternate
location in the United States, in the absence of specific legislative
authority.
Sincerely yours,
Robert P. Murphy
General Counsel
B-271612
January 30, 1997
DIGEST
In 64 Comp. Gen. 319 (1985), we held that the statutes authorizing
payment of a transportation allowance in connection with the
educational travel of student dependents of service members and
civilian employees stationed overseas, 37 U.S.C. sec. 430 and 5 U.S.C. sec.
5924(4)(B) (1994), may permit reimbursement for the transportation of
the student's unaccompanied baggage to and from the overseas location.
However, the Chairman of the Per Diem, Travel and Transportation
Allowance Committee, Department of Defense (DOD), is advised of our
opinion that, in the absence of specific legislative authority, DOD's
regulations may not be changed to authorize temporary storage of a
student dependent's baggage or shipment of it to an alternate location
in the United States.