Last summer Dr. Coburn launched a government wide inquiry of how much agencies have spent on meetings and travel since 2000. Among the Subcommittee's findings: Meetings and travel spending has increased almost 70% at a cost of over $1.4 Billion to taxpayers.
He called this hearing to unveil the findings to the public and to hear from the government agencies themselves. He also heard testimony from a former White House official who witnessed rampant wasteful spending on conference travel and meetings.
• The federal government has spent over $1.4 Billion on meetings and travel since 2000.
• Overall Department spending on meetings and travel has increased at the least, 70% since 2000.
• Agencies assume annual increases in meetings and travel spending, a nonessential activity, and have been spending accordingly.
• Many meetings and conferences are set in beach, resort, or casino areas.
• There is overwhelming evidence that bureaucrats have a “spring break” mentality when it comes to business travel for conferences and meetings, using the business trip as a vacation and either skip meetings all together, or use the taxpayer-purchased plane ticket to stay extra days for recreational travel.
• HUD increased such spending 340% from 2001-2005.
• HHS sent delegations of over 100 people to a conference on at least 59 separate occasions.
• HHS spent $3.6 million on a single conference in FY 2002 held in Barcelona, Spain, to which 236 HHS employees traveled to attend.
• On many occasions conference topics and agendas conflict with American interests and values.
• Agencies conceded that they do not track travel, conference spending and participation in any organized way. Agencies must track meeting support and participation transparently and comprehensively and post all information on the web.
• Per diem rates exceed true cost of daily expenses, and allow federal employees to make money on their business travel.
Impact on Taxpayers:
• Taxpayers are forced to subsidize conferences with agendas at odds with their values and interests.
• Taxpayers pay to send bureaucrats on nonessential trips that they certainly couldn’t afford themselves.
These Findings Demand a Response:
• Agencies must establish a formal vetting and justification process for conference requests at the Secretary level so that every conference is readily defensible, on its face, to regular Americans in terms of topic, location and participants.
• Technology should reduce conference and meeting spending. Teleconferences, video conferencing and the Internet can save money while allowing the same type of interaction and information sharing at a mere fraction of the cost.
