Originally posted by Geoff Whiting on Fierce Government
Efforts to reduce travel and increase oversight in travel and conference spending have saved the federal government roughly $2 billion from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2012, says Daniel Werfel, controller at the Office of Management and Budget.
Speaking at a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Werfel said agencies expect to save another $1 billion by the end of fiscal 2013. Efforts to save money include general travel cuts, limits on conference expenditures, conducting training in-house and increased use of technology such as webinars and teleconferencing to replace travel.
Werfel says OMB's goal is to reduce spending by as much as 20 percent below 2010 levels by the end of 2013 and maintain that level of spending through fiscal 2016. This includes a 30 percent reduction in travel funds. Werfel noted, however, that military travel is not subject to this 30 percent reduction because OMB wanted to provide the Defense Department with as much flexibility as it could.
He said that since the scandal around a 2010 General Services Administration Las Vegas convention, OMB has seen "an enormous amount of attention that's generating very important and positive results" for administrative expenses even beyond travel and conferences.
In response to the scandal, Cynthia Metzler, chief administrative services officer at GSA, told the hearing that agency policy now says travel and conferences "can only be approved when all other alternatives, including video conferences and webinars, have been considered." Through travel limits and uses of alternatives she says GSA saved $28 million through the end of fiscal 2012.
In addition, Werfel said the Agriculture Department has reduced travel costs by $125 million in fiscal 2012 and is on track to reduce costs by an additional $90 million in fiscal 2013, when compared to 2010 levels. Werfel also noted that the Labor Department has cancelled more than 100 conferences and the Defense ended one Air Force technology conference that would have cost $1.7 million alone.
However, Chairman Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), said that in fiscal 2012 there were more than 750 conferences that cost more than $100,000--a threshold where agencies are now required to get senior management approval and which must be reported to the public--with a total cost of $250 million to $300 million. Werfel said that between 130 and 140 of these conferences cost more than $500,000 apiece.
