IIB 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 313 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 1, 2013 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

AN ACT 

To amend title 5, United States Code, to institute spending 

limits and transparency requirements for Federal conference and travel expenditures, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Government Spending 

3 Accountability Act of 2013’’ or the ‘‘GSA Act of 2013’’. 

4 SEC. 2. LIMITS AND TRANSPARENCY FOR CONFERENCE 

5 AND TRAVEL SPENDING. 

6 (a) AMENDMENT.—Chapter 57 of title 5, United 

7 States Code, is amended by inserting after section 5711 

8 the following: 

9 ‘‘§ 5712. Limits and transparency for conference and 

10 travel spending 

11 ‘‘(a) CONFERENCE TRANSPARENCY AND SPENDING

12 LIMITS.— 

13 ‘‘(1) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF CONFERENCE

14 MATERIALS.—Each agency shall post on the public 

15 website of that agency detailed information on any 

16 presentation made by any employee of that agency 

17 at a conference (except to the extent the head of an 

18 agency excludes such information for reasons of na19 tional security or information described under sec20 tion 552(b)) including— 

21 ‘‘(A) the prepared text of any verbal pres22 entation made; and 

23 ‘‘(B) any visual, digital, video, or audio 

24 materials presented, including photographs, 

25 slides, and audio-visual recordings. 


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1 ‘‘(2) LIMITS ON AMOUNT EXPENDED ON A CON2 FERENCE.— 

3 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided 

4 under subparagraph (B), an agency may not 

5 expend more than $500,000 to support a single 

6 conference. 

7 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—The head of an agency 

8 may waive the limitation under subparagraph 

9 (A) for a specific conference after making a de10 termination that the expenditure is justified as 

11 the most cost-effective option to achieve a com12 pelling purpose. The head of an agency shall 

13 submit to the appropriate congressional com14 mittees a report on any waiver granted under 

15 this subparagraph, including the justification 

16 for such waiver. 

17 ‘‘(C) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing 

18 in this paragraph shall be construed to preclude 

19 an agency from receiving financial support or 

20 other assistance from a private entity to pay or 

21 defray the costs of a conference the total cost 

22 of which exceeds $500,000. 

23 ‘‘(b) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RULE.—An 

24 agency may not pay the travel expenses for more than 50 

25 employees of that agency who are stationed in the United 


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1 States, for any international conference, unless the Sec2 retary of State determines that attendance for such em3 ployees is in the national interest, or the head of the agen4 cy determines that attendance for such employees is crit5 ical to the agency’s mission. The Secretary of State and 

6 the head of an agency shall submit to the appropriate con7 gressional committees a report on any waiver granted 

8 under this subsection, including the justification for such 

9 waiver. 

10 ‘‘(c) REPORTING ON TRAVEL AND CONFERENCE EX11 PENSES REQUIRED.—At the beginning of each quarter of 

12 each fiscal year, each agency shall post on the public 

13 website of that agency a report on each conference that 

14 costs more than $10,000 for which the agency paid travel 

15 expenses during the preceding 3 months that includes— 

16 ‘‘(1) the itemized expenses paid by the agency, 

17 including travel, lodging, and meal expenses, and 

18 any other agency expenditures to otherwise support 

19 the conference; 

20 ‘‘(2) the primary sponsor of the conference; 

21 ‘‘(3) the location of the conference; 

22 ‘‘(4) the date of the conference; 

23 ‘‘(5) a brief explanation of how the participa24 tion of employees from such agency at the con25 ference advanced the mission of the agency; 


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1 ‘‘(6) the title of any employee, or any individual 

2 who is not a Federal employee, whose travel ex3 penses or other conference expenses were paid by the 

4 agency; 

5 ‘‘(7) the total number of individuals whose trav6 el expenses or other conference expenses were paid 

7 by the agency; and 

8 ‘‘(8) in the case of a conference for which that 

9 agency was the primary sponsor, a statement that— 

10 ‘‘(A) describes the cost to the agency of se11 lecting the specific conference venue; 

12 ‘‘(B) describes why the location was se13 lected, including a justification for such selec14 tion; 

15 ‘‘(C) demonstrates the cost efficiency of 

16 the location; 

17 ‘‘(D) provides a cost benefit analysis of 

18 holding a conference rather than conducting a 

19 teleconference; and 

20 ‘‘(E) describes any financial support or 

21 other assistance from a private entity used to 

22 pay or defray the costs of the conference, and 

23 for each case where such support or assistance 

24 was used, the head of the agency shall include 


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1 a certification that there is no conflict of inter2 est resulting from such support or assistance. 

3 ‘‘(d) FORMAT AND PUBLICATION OF REPORTS.— 

4 Each report posted on the public website under subsection 

5 (c) shall— 

6 ‘‘(1) be in a searchable electronic format; and 

7 ‘‘(2) remain on that website for at least 5 years 

8 after the date of posting. 

9 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

10 ‘‘(1) AGENCY.—The term ‘agency’ has the 

11 meaning given that term under section 5701, but 

12 does not include the government of the District of 

13 Columbia. 

14 ‘‘(2) CONFERENCE.—The term ‘conference’ 

15 means a meeting, retreat, seminar, symposium, or 

16 event that— 

17 ‘‘(A) is held for consultation, education, 

18 discussion, or training; and 

19 ‘‘(B) is not held entirely at a Government 

20 facility. 

21 ‘‘(3) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE.—The term 

22 ‘international conference’ means a conference occur23 ring outside the United States attended by rep24 resentatives of— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the Government of the United States; 

2 and 

3 ‘‘(B) any foreign government, international 

4 organization, or foreign nongovernmental orga5 nization.’’. 

6 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

7 The table of sections for chapter 57 of title 5, United 

8 States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat9 ing to section 5711 the following: 

‘‘5712. Limits and transparency for conference and travel spending.’’. 

10 (c) ANNUAL TRAVEL EXPENSE LIMITS.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—In the case of each of fiscal 

12 years 2014 through 2018, an agency (as defined 

13 under section 5712(e) of title 5, United States Code, 

14 as added by subsection (a)) may not make, or obli15 gate to make, expenditures for travel expenses, in an 

16 aggregate amount greater than 70 percent of the ag17 gregate amount of such expenses for fiscal year 

18 2010. 

19 (2) EXEMPTIONS.—The agency may exclude 

20 certain travel expenses from the limitation under 

21 paragraph (1) only if the agency head determines 

22 that inclusion of such expenses would undermine na23 tional security, international diplomacy, health and 

24 safety inspections, law enforcement, or site visits re25 quired for oversight or investigatory purposes. 


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1 (3) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—In each of fiscal 

2 years 2014 through 2018, the head of each agency 

3 shall submit to the Committee on Oversight and 

4 Government Reform of the House of Representatives 

5 and the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov6 ernmental Affairs of the Senate a report con7 taining— 

8 (A) the justification for any expenses ex9 cluded (under paragraph (2)) from the limita10 tion under paragraph (1); and 

11 (B) the positive or negative impacts, if 

12 any, of the limitation under paragraph (1) on 

13 the agency’s mission, cost-effectiveness, effi14 ciency, and ability to perform core functions. 

15 (4) IDENTIFICATION OF TRAVEL EXPENSES.— 

16 (A) RESPONSIBILITIES.—Not later than 

17 September 30, 2013, and after consultation 

18 with the Administrator of General Services and 

19 the Director of the Administrative Office of the 

20 United States Courts, the Director of the Office 

21 of Management and Budget shall establish 

22 guidelines for the determination of what ex23 penses constitute travel expenses for purposes 

24 of this subsection. The guidelines shall identify 


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1 specific expenses, and classes of expenses, that 

2 are to be treated as travel expenses. 

3 (B) EXEMPTION FOR MILITARY TRAVEL.— 

4 The guidelines required under subparagraph 

5 (A) shall exclude military travel expenses in de6 termining what expenses constitute travel ex7 penses. Military travel expenses shall include 

8 travel expenses involving military combat, the 

9 training or deployment of uniformed military 

10 personnel, and such other travel expenses as de11 termined by the Director of the Office of Man12 agement and Budget, in consultation with the 

13 Administrator of General Services and the Di14 rector of the Administrative Office of the 

15 United States Courts. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 31, 2013. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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