“Throughout our history, presidents and lawmakers cut back non-defense spending during times of war. Today, Congress must follow that precedent and begin to curb the increase in spending on nonessential activities.” --Chairman Tom Coburn, 9/14/06
In summer 2005 Chairman Coburn launched a government wide inquiry into travel spending and asked federal agencies to report conference sponsorship and participation since 2001 and found that the government had spent over $1.4 billion sending people to meetings and conferences the last five years. The data revealed that such spending had increased 70%. When fiscal year 2006 spending is totaled, these numbers are expected to grow. The investigation uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on sending employees to conferences of questionable value. In addition to excessive spending on airfare, hotel rooms and per diems, the Subcommittee found excessive attendance levels, where agencies were sending dozens and even hundreds of employees to the same out-of-town meeting, sometimes overseas. The Subcommittee concluded that much travel to conferences is unnecessary given the fact that videoconferencing and the Internet allow the same information to be shared and exchanged.
Chairman Coburn has held two hearings on this subject at which he called 14 government witnesses to defend their agency’s travel spending records. The Subcommittee also heard testimony from a former government official who discussed a “spring break” mentality on the conference circuit and characterized most conferences as “a waste of time and money.”
The investigation also revealed that government employees traveling to lavish locales including Crete, Australia, South Africa and Hawaii will often take annual leave before or after the conference, essentially charging taxpayers the cost of a plane ticket for their personal vacations, begging the question – would the conference have been attended if the employee hadn’t been able to combine with his vacation?
Every conference attended by Federal employees should be able to stand up to the following questions:
Does the conference help further the Department’s mission?
Could the information provided at the conference be disseminated instead through a teleconference, the Internet or scholarly publication subsequent to the conference?
Is the location appropriate and justified?
Is the number of employees attending justified, and could one employee attend instead of many, and provide detailed briefings to other employees afterward?
Is this a wise use of tax dollars when we have an over $9 trillion national debt?
Could the amount spent on the conference have been better spent on a higher priority, or not spent at all?
This is an area the Subcommittee will continue to watch. Check back for updates.
“For the Farmers or for Fun,” an oversight report released by Senator Tom Coburn, ranking member of the Federal Financial Management Subcommittee, examines questionable conference spending by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) — an agency which reported almost tripling its conference spending since 2000, to $19.4 million in fiscal year 2006.
In 2006, USDA sent 20,959 employees to 6,719 conferences and training activities across the nation and around the world (a 191 percent increase since 2000).
