Reply to Attn of: 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Headquarters 

Washington, DC 20546-0001 

OLIAl2012-00310f:SS:amb 

The Honorable Tom Coburn, MD 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Senator Coburn: 

February 8, 2013 

This is in response to your letter of April 16, 2012, to the Administrator requesting 

information regarding NASA conference and travel expenditures from FY 2010 to the 

present. The enclosed materials provide the information requested in your letter. 

While NASA has been steadily enhancing its conference review processes since 2008, it 

made a number of significant improvements in FY 2012. Starting in October 2011, in 

accordance with Administration direction, NASA required that all NASA-sponsored 

conferences be centrally reviewed and approved by the Deputy Administrator; this 

process also required improved documentation of the planning and justification for the 

investments made in conferences hosted by NASA. Starting in May 2012, again in 

accordance with Administration guidance, NASA implemented reviews of spending and 

senior approvals for all conferences with costs over $100,000. In June 2012, NASA 

updated its conference policies to enhance review and approval requirements for 

NASA-sponsored conferences with costs less than $100,000, and to ban industry and 

others' widely attended gatherings and NASA-directly funded meals at NASAsponsored conferences. This focus, along with the overall emphasis placed on travel 

savings at all levels, led to millions of dollars in reduced spending on conferences in 

FY 2012. 

NASA also spearheaded several key internal initiatives, including savings in connection 

with NASA's three largest internal conferences, by directing that all three be changed in 

the coming years to a virtual format (and piloting the first of these as a virtual event in 

October 2012). For one of these conferences that was already essentially underway, 

NASA reduced its size significantly. These changes are conservatively estimated to 

have saved over $2 million in FY 2012. In addition, NASA centralized a conference 

database tool to permit better coordinated planning across the Agency, and expanded 

the scope of events tracked as "conferences," consistent with the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) Memorandum 12-12, issued in May 2012. This broader definition 

was also applied retroactively, so the information in the enclosed report encompasses 

more types of events than prior reports by NASA. 
2 

NASA spent the vast majority of the funds (80 percent in FY 2012) associated with 

conference attendance for presentations and participation at scientific and technical 

conferences. This practice helps to fulfill one of the fundamental mandates of the 

National Aeronautics and Space Act that NASA "shall provide for the widest 

practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and 

the results thereof." At such events, NASA scientists, engineers, and leaders present 

scientific and technical papers and participate in interchanges on leading-edge research 

and technology with peers in the Federal government, the science community, the 

aeronautics and aerospace industries, and our international partners at conferences. 

Conferences attended and sponsored by NASA address a broad and diverse range of 

scientific and engineering challenges faced by NASA in carrying out its missions, 

including climate and other Earth science research, advanced aeronautics, and the 

cutting-edge technologies needed for both current and planned robotic and human space 

flight programs. As the enclosed report (Enclosure 1) shows, in keeping with past 

reports to NASA's Office ofInspector General and Congress, a clear majority of 

conferences sponsored by NASA were undertaken in furtherance of this key statutory 

goal. 

In addition to facilitating the dissemination and advancement of scientific research, 

conferences also serve as a cost-effective way for NASA to carry out other missionrelated purposes, such as educational outreach, program development, institutional 

planning, and information gathering. For example, conferences on program 

management provide opportunities for examination of current trends in aerospace 

project and engineering management by offering forums for the exchange and 

dissemination of best practices, new ideas, and training to help the Agency costeffectively meet the toughest challenges in space exploration today. 

Items specifically requested in your letter and included in this response are: 

1. "(a) Total cost of agency travel related to conferences (including but not limited 

to per diems, airline tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals)." 

"(b) The number and a full listing of all conferences attended by your employees 

during each fiscal year, including the conference title, the location, date, and 

number of employees who attended. 

"( c) The number and full listing of conferences that received assistance or 

support from the agency noting whether the agency was (1) the primary host, (2) 

a sponsor, or (3) provided support other than attendance. Please include the 

number of non-federal employees who attended whose costs were covered by 

the agency, the name of the primary conference sponsor, and the total cost to the 

agency for each conference hosted and sponsored by the agency or attended by 

agency staff (including staff salaries, travel, lodging, sponsorship, other related 

costs), and list the contract numbers for all contracts awarded in support of each 

conference listed. 
"(d) Total number and cost of trips related to conference scouting during each 

fiscal year." 

3 

The enclosed report lists all identified conferences by date and includes all of 

the requested information, where available. One caveat is that NASA has no 

systematic means available to tie traveler salary information to the time 

associated with individual employee's conference attendance; moreover, NASA 

found that it could not estimate the average level given the wide variation in 

grade level of attendees from conference to conference. 

2. "(e) The number and a list of grant programs administered by the agency that 

require recipients to attend conferences and the total cost for such mandatory 

conference attendance for each program." 

As part of the data call, we worked with NASA Centers and Headquarters 

Offices to review grant requirements and no grants were identified that require 

mandatory awardee attendance at a conference. NASA does require some types 

of research grants to disseminate the results of the funded research, but these 

grants do not mandate conference attendance as that means of dissemination. 

To the extent grantees are invited to present at conferences with respect to their 

research, it is important to keep in mind that such presentations often prove an 

important, sometimes essential, step in the review and scrutiny of research 

results leading up to publication in widely read, peer-reviewed science journals. 

These are a particularly valuable means of disseminating NASA-funded 

research results, in keeping with the mandate of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Act. 

In your letter, you also requested copies of new guidance issued by NASA in FY 2012. 

Enclosure 2 is a compilation of this guidance for your information. 

NASA has been steadily strengthening our conference sponsorship and attendance 

processes and we are currently implementing further improvements in our systems, 

processes, and reports. These measures are part of our continued efforts to be careful 

stewards oftaxpayer dollars in carrying out our missions. 

Thank you for your attention to these matters. We would be pleased to respond to 

questions regarding this report. 

Sincerely, 

~~ L. Seth Statler 

Associate Administrator 

for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs 

2 Enclosures