WASHINGTON - More bad news for cities like New Orleans that regularly host government sponsored conferences: The Obama administration, responding to widespread criticism of a lavish General Services Administration 2010 meeting in Las Vegas, announced a 30 percent reduction in travel costs and a review by senior officials in every federal agency of all future conferences budgeted at $100,000...
WASHINGTON - More bad news for cities like New Orleans that regularly host government sponsored conferences: The Obama administration, responding to widespread criticism of a lavish General Services Administration 2010 meeting in Las Vegas, announced a 30 percent reduction in travel costs and a review by senior officials in every federal agency of all future conferences budgeted at $100,000 or more.
Stephen Perry, head of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, worries about fewer government conferences.The Department of Health and Human Services, one of the government's largest agencies, announced it is putting a freeze on all future conferences, with the exception of those for which airfare and hotel rooms have already been paid.
The new federal directive says no agency will be permitted to host a conference costing over $500,000.
All this is a result of the outcry over the 2010 GSA Western Region meeting in Las Vegas, which cost $823,000 and included substantial pre-event event planning, lavish meals, expensive alcoholic drinks and even a mind-reading entertainer. Several congressional committees held hearings on the GSA excesses earlier this year.
In 2008, the same GSA region held a meeting in New Orleans that cost $655,000, $168,000 less than the Las Vegas conference. But that's twice as much as spent at the 2006 western region conference in Oklahoma City.
In a memo sent to federal agencies, the Office of Management and Budget says that travel "is often necessary for federal employees to discharge their duties effectively and the travel industry play an important role in creating jobs and supporting local economies."
"However, as good stewards of federal funds, agencies must do all they can to manage their travel budgets efficiently."
The memo directs all savings from the 30 percent or more reduction in travel expenses established by the new policy to be used for improvement of "the transparency of and accountability for federal spending" that will provide more incentives to further reduce "wasteful spending over the long term."
The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau pegs government meetings at roughly 9 percent of the $1 billion it says conferences and conventions generate annually for the city's economy.
Stephen Perry, the bureau's president and CEO, said in an earlier interview that no one should defend the excesses of the $823,000 the GSA spent for the Vegas convention. There are rules and procedures in place, he said, that should have prevented the no-bid contracts and extensive and expensive pre-event travel and lavish parties.
"It's frustrating for us that instead of taking steps to make sure that rules are being abided by that there's effort to curtail travel when it is one of the ways for government leaders to get outside of Washington and actually serve their constituents," Perry said.