NASA Advisory Council Recommendation 

Impact of Travel Restrictions on Science and Technology 

2013-03-01 (SC-01) 

Recommendation: 

The Council recommends that the NASA leadership reconsider the interpretation of external 

guidance on travel restrictions for scientific and technology meetings, conferences and working 

groups to allow the optimal participation of the scientific and technology community, including 

NASA employees and contractors, to enhance productivity within the existing highly 

constrained financial resources. 

Major Reasons for Proposing the Recommendation: 

Under the current interpretation, travel under NASA contracts, grants, or as NASA employees 

and contractors has been limited in a way that is highly inefficient and counterproductive for 

NASA's science and technology endeavors. This is compounded by the additional burden of 

new justification, documentation, tracking and management requirements and their associated 

costs. 

Regular and open communication between scientists and technologists is essential for healthy 

and productive research. Although electronic and virtual means of communication play an 

increasing role in interacting with colleagues and can accommodate much routine project 

activity, they cannot replace face-to-face interactions. Specific examples include the much 

valued give-and-take of vibrant (sometimes heated) discussions, insight derived from multiple 

ideas being discussed spontaneously, informal (often unplanned) interactions and brainstorming 

that occurs before or after a presentation. These person-to-person contacts are extremely costeffective and are key components in productive scientific interactions. 

Consequences of No Action on the Proposed Recommendation: 

NASA will spend more money while achieving less in science and technology by running the 

program in a way that is inefficient for discovery and progress. 

NASA Response: 

NASA concurs with NAC recommendation 2013-03-01 (SC-01). In response to OMB's 

memorandum M-12-12, NASA issued sequestration guidance in March of2013 in a number of 

areas, including conference attendance and travel. Since that time, the Agency has adjusted to 

lower funding levels (post-sequestration) and, as a result, the NASA Executive Council 

reassessed and issued new guidance for FY 2014 in regard to conference attendance and travel. 

This new guidance for FY 2014 removed the requirement to be substantively involved when 

attending a domestic conference. For foreign conferences, the requirement to be 

programmatically involved was reduced to being substantively involved (i.e., presenting, 

speaking, session moderator, or facilitating a scientific or technical exhibit). It is important to 

note that the reduction in the number of conferences NASA has participated in under 

sequestration has been insignificant, although the number of attendees for each event has been 

measurably reduced. The new relaxed guidance for FY 2014, in most cases, has resulted in 

Enclosure 
significant increases in the number of attendees. This demonstrates that NASA has 

reconsidered restrictions for scientific and technology events allowing for increased 

participation which is consistent with the NAC recommendation. 

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