TITLE:  United States Geological Survey (USGS) -- Use of Appropriated Funds, B-286137, February 21, 2001
BNUMBER:  B-286137
DATE:  February 21, 2001
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United States Geological Survey (USGS) -- Use of Appropriated Funds,
B-286137, February 21, 2001

Decision

Matter of: United States Geological Survey (USGS) -- Use of Appropriated
Funds to Pay for Annual Eye Examinations and Prescription Eyeglasses

File: B-286137

Date: February 21, 2001

DIGEST

The United States Geological Survey may establish a vision certification
program for employees performing tasks requiring visual acuity and use
appropriated funds to pay for annual eye examinations for those employees
under the authority of 5 U.S.C. sect. 7901. Prescription eyeglasses for
employees requiring vision correction are personal items employees are
expected to provide themselves and an agency may not use appropriated funds
to pay for personal expenses.

DECISION

The Associate Chief for Operations of the United States Geological Survey
(USGS) has asked for an advance decision on whether USGS may use
appropriated funds to pay for annual eye examinations and purchase
prescription eyeglasses for employees performing certain tasks related to
the National Aerial Photography Program and the Optical Science Laboratory.
For the reasons explained below, we conclude that USGS may pay for annual
eye examinations, 5 U.S.C. sect. 7901, but not for prescription eyeglasses for
these employees.

Background

In 1998, USGS asked the Federal Occupational Health Office of the U.S.
Public Health Service to evaluate the need for a vision certification
program for the operators of the National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP)
and the Optical Science Laboratory (OSL). The Public Health Service
recommended that USGS should establish a visual certification program for
operators and supply operators with prescription eyeglasses. [1] USGS
explains that the operators perform six tasks requiring visual acuity. [2]
Four of those tasks require either searching for fine detail or evaluating
fine detail within a 16-inch viewing distance, i.e., the near viewing
distance. Based on the Public Health Service's findings and to obtain a more
uniform work product, USGS proposes to establish a visual certification
program that includes paying for annual eye examinations and prescription
eyeglasses for NAPP and OSL operators.

During their workday, NAPP operators perform film inspection and coverage
inspection tasks. Film inspection involves rapidly scanning each frame of
contractor supplied photography over a Richard Transparent Light Table
equipped with a special lamp to search the film for anomalies or defects
that are often small and subtle. Operators must identify fine detail from a
changing background to locate these anomalies and defects. This task
occupies about 80 percent of the operator's workday. Coverage inspection
involves orienting scanned film to a specific known landmark on the ground.
The operator uses a transparent overlay with existing landmarks and matches
landmarks on the overlay with corresponding landmarks on the film. This task
requires identifying, focusing on and studying specific areas of each
overlay and film. Operators spend approximately 20 percent of their workday
on coverage inspection.

OSL operators appraise the quality of lenses used by contractors and other
agencies in aerial photography flights. To do this, OSL operators perform
reading resolution and calibration test tasks that require visual acuity for
near vision and searching for fine detail. The reading resolution task
compares the resolution of the test pattern on the film with a test pattern
on a wall chart. The operator views the film's test pattern through a
microscope to identify the fine detail of the pattern, compares it to the
pattern on the wall chart, and chooses the size of the film's test pattern.
The operator requires visual focus of both near vision of 16 inches and
intermediate vision of 32 inches. This task involves approximately 15
percent of the operator's workday. With respect to the calibration test, the
OSL operator's objective is to ensure that distortion and repeatability of
the test pattern on the film is within acceptable standards. The operator
uses a binocular microscope connected to computerized measuring equipment
and moves a sight line on the microscope over a target on the film, a task
that requires identifying fine detail on the target. This task occupies 80
percent of the workday.

USGS has concluded, in accordance with the Public Health Service's
recommendation and in order to ensure a uniform quality of work, that it
should maintain a standard for NAPP and OSL operators of 20/20 vision with
emphasis on 20/20 visual acuity for near vision. USGS proposes to implement
a vision care program that includes a basic complete eye exam and providing
prescription eyeglasses as necessary to operators in order to correct their
vision to 20/20 in the near viewing distance.

Analysis

An agency may use appropriated funds only for the purposes for which
appropriated. 31 U.S.C. sect. 1301(a). While the USGS appropriation for surveys,
investigation, research, and administrative expenses does not specifically
identify eye examinations or prescription glasses as an object of that
appropriation, Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations
Act, 2001, Pub. L. No. 106-291, 114 Stat. 922, 931-932 (2000), an agency may
use an appropriation for official expenses beyond those specified explicitly
in its appropriation. See 1 United States General Accounting Office
Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, (PFAL) p.4-14, (2d ed. 1991).
Indeed such is the clear import of the "necessary expense" rule. However, to
determine whether proposed expenditures such as the eye examinations and
prescription eyeglasses at issue here are permissible uses of the
appropriation, we must first look to whether the expenditure is personal or
official.

Annual Eye Examinations

The Congress, in 5 U.S.C. sect. 7901, has established that employee physical
examinations, including eye examinations, are an official expenditure of
agency appropriations. Section 7901 of title 5, United States Code,
authorizes agencies to offer a health service program to promote and
maintain the physical and mental fitness of employees. Under this statute,
agencies may establish, by contract or otherwise, a health service program
for treatment of on-the-job illness and dental conditions requiring
emergency attention, pre-employment and other examinations, referral of
employees to private physicians and dentists, and preventive programs
related to health. 5 U.S.C. sect. 7901(c). As part of these programs, agencies
clearly may provide physical examinations to their employees. 64 Comp. Gen.
835 (1985) (National Park Service could include health hazard appraisals,
physical fitness evaluations, and blood tests as examinations authorized
under 5 U.S.C. sect. 7901(c));

B-256092, July 6, 1994 (National Transportation Safety Board could reimburse
its investigators for the costs of physical examinations for a Federal
Aviation Administration medical certificate). Cf. 41 Comp. Gen. 531 (1962)
(Saint Lawrence Seaway Corporation could pay for annual physical
examinations for employees engaged in operating heavy equipment to determine
their fitness and to prevent damage or injury to government property and
personnel). Thus, under the authority of section 7901, USGS may provide
annual eye examinations for the employees involved in the NAPP and OSL tasks
described above.

Prescription Eyeglasses

Because items such as prescription eyeglasses enable an employee to qualify
himself to perform official duties, their costs are considered, generally, a
personal expense not payable from appropriated funds. 3 Comp. Gen. 433
(1924); and 1 PFAL at 4-198. In the absence of an appropriation or other
statutory authority specifically available to pay what would otherwise be
considered a personal expense, [3] we apply two tests. First, we ask whether
the Government can accomplish its purpose as expeditiously and
satisfactorily without such items. 63 Comp. Gen. at 281 (appropriated funds
are not available to purchase corrective eyeglasses for employees who use
video display terminals); 45 Comp. Gen. 215, 217 (1965). Where the agency
demonstrates that the use of the equipment materially increases the
employee's work output, we have found that the first test is satisfied. 45
Comp. Gen. at 217. Here, USGS has demonstrated that employees with 20/20
vision can better perform the tasks in the near vision range and perceive
fine detail and that maintaining a consistent standard will result in a
uniform, high quality product. Thus, USGS has satisfied the first test.

The second test asks whether the item is one that the employee is reasonably
expected to furnish as part of the personal equipment necessary to enable
him to perform the regular duties of his position. [4] 63 Comp. Gen. at 281;
45 Comp. Gen. at 217. In making this determination, we look to whether the
item is to be used by the employee in connection with his regular duties or
only in emergencies and whether the item is assigned to an employee for
individual use or can be used by different employees. Id.

USGS notes that we had agreed with its use of appropriated funds for a
vision program in which it provided special filter glasses for employees
with normal vision and special prescription filter glasses for employees
whose vision needed to be corrected. 45 Comp. Gen. 215 (1965). According to
USGS, the work performed by its employees today is the evolution of the work
described in that decision, albeit with different technology and work
methods, but with the same visual acuity and productivity concerns. We think
our decision in 45 Comp. Gen. 215 is distinguishable from the present
proposal. In our earlier decision, the special filter glasses, with or
without the prescription, were only useful for operating the precision
stereoscopic map plotting instruments. The glasses were of no personal use
to the employees, were the property of the government and were subject to
the government's control. Id. at 216.

We believe, based on our analysis of the second test, that the prescription
eyeglasses in this case are personal to the employee. While the USGS
certainly benefits from employees' corrected vision, the primary beneficiary
is the employee. Unlike the situation in 45 Comp. Gen. 215, where all
employees would need the special filter glasses, whether prescription or
not, in this case only employees requiring vision correction would need the
glasses to perform the work. USGS does not dispute that the prescription
lenses it proposes to purchase are in the nature of ordinary corrective
lenses. As ordinary corrective lenses, these would be useful only to the
employee for whom they are prescribed, and of value to the employee outside
of his work for USGS. See 63 Comp. Gen. at 281. Furthermore, the Public
Health Service concluded that USGS could legitimately exempt an employee
from the standard where it had evidence that the employee could adequately
perform the tasks involved here without vision corrected to 20/20 and that
all current employees qualified for that exemption.

Absent statutory authority for the purchase of prescription eyeglasses and
the failure to demonstrate that the item should not be furnished by the
employee as part of the personal equipment necessary to perform the duties
of the position, we conclude that the prescription eyeglasses are personal
to the employee; and under these circumstances, appropriated funds are not
available to pay for this expense.

Anthony H. Gamboa

Acting General Counsel

Notes

1. The operators in the NAPP and OSL programs are classified as
cartographers, GS-1370 series or cartographic technicians, GS-1371 series.
The classification standards for these positions describe the applicable
duties, responsibilities, and qualification requirements for these
positions. While they do not address the visual standards at issue in this
case, the standards include tasks that require visual acuity. For example,
these employees must be able to identify and evaluate data sources for
quality, inspect and edit digital geospatial data to ensure compliance with
specifications, operate stereoscopic instruments, and extract digital
terrain data and edit the content to produce a specific graphic product.

2. Visual acuity is the ability to distinguish details and shapes of
objects, also called central vision. Visual acuity is expressed as a
fraction. The top number refers to the distance a person stands from the
chart, normally 20 feet. The bottom number represents the distance from
which a person with normal vision could see the object. Visual acuity of
20/20 is considered normal vision. See "Glossary of Vision Terms," National
Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health.

3. The purchase of ordinary prescription eyeglasses under USGS' proposal
does not meet the standard for purchasing safety and protective equipment
under the authority of 29 U.S.C. sect. 668 or special clothing or equipment for
the protection of personnel under 5 U.S.C. sect. 7903. We identified no
statutory authority for USGS to purchase prescription eyeglasses for its
employees.

4. This type of employee benefit is not typical of those historically
offered by federal agencies and we are not aware, nor has USGS provided
evidence to establish, that a benefit such as prescription eyeglasses is a
typical benefit provided the nonfederal workforce. See 71 Comp. Gen. 527,
529 (1992).