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.