I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5957 
To require that any local currencies used to provide per diems to Members 
and employees of Congress for official foreign travel for a fiscal year 
be obtained by Congress and paid for using funds appropriated for 
salaries and expenses of Congress for the fiscal year, to enhance the 
disclosure of information on official foreign travel of Members, officers, 
and employees of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 29, 2010 
Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Com-
mittee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To require that any local currencies used to provide per 
diems to Members and employees of Congress for official 
foreign travel for a fiscal year be obtained by Congress 
and paid for using funds appropriated for salaries and 
expenses of Congress for the fiscal year, to enhance 
the disclosure of information on official foreign travel 
of Members, officers, and employees of the House of 
Representatives, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Congressional Foreign Travel Reform Act of 2010’’. 
(b) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The 56-year-old Mutual Security Act gov-
erns the current procedures and reporting require-
ments associated with the expending of foreign cur-
rencies for foreign travel by members of Congress 
and their staffs. 
(2) A recent Congressional Research Service 
(CRS) memorandum finds that ‘‘there are no re-
quirements regarding the disclosure of international 
travel by Members of Congress or their staffs that 
contain records of all international travel that might 
be taken.’’. 
(3) This memorandum also finds that— 
(A) the current travel disclosure require-
ments ‘‘may be of limited utility’’ when trying 
to assess the amount Congress spends on for-
eign travel; 
(B) some foreign travel disclosures ‘‘. . . 
identify annual expenditures for an entity, rath-
er than quarterly,’’ as is required by the law; 
(C) some disclosures contain ‘‘. . . typo-
graphical and mathematics errors’’; 
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(D) the current disclosure requirements for 
Congressional foreign travel ‘‘. . . might raise 
questions about the accuracy of reported des-
tinations, participants or expenditures’’; and 
(E) the current reporting requirements for 
Congressional foreign travel ‘‘. . . may reduce 
the suitability and reliability’’ of the following 
data: ‘‘number of trips taken, number of con-
gressional travelers, destinations and the num-
ber of times a destination was visited, purposes 
of travel, benefits of travel and the extent of ex-
penditures for congressional travel.’’. 
(4) In April 2010 Roll Call reported that these 
travel ‘‘. . . accommodations are made by the State 
Department and billed back to a government ac-
count that automatically refills itself and has no 
spending limit attached.’’. 
(5) In March 2010 the Wall Street Journal re-
ported that while congressional rules require any un-
used per diem received for congressional travel must 
be paid back, this rule is rarely followed. 
(6) The ‘‘Questions and Answers’’ section of 
the Official Foreign Travel Guide for the U.S. Con-
gress advises Members of Congress that they ‘‘. . . 
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may keep any ‘excess’ funds’’ from a per diem allow-
ance. 
(7) The CRS memorandum finds that from the 
only public available records on Congressional for-
eign travel, the House of Representatives went from 
spending $1,557,162 on foreign travel in 1994 to 
$9,303,709 in 2009, and that the amount the House 
has spent on travel has nearly doubled since 2006. 
Furthermore, these amounts do not take into ac-
count the use of military aircraft. 
(8) In June 2010 Roll Call reported that 
‘‘Members of Congress routinely fail to report mil-
lions of dollars’ worth of costs . . . on foreign 
trips’’, and that the ‘‘total spent on foreign travel 
has skyrocketed in the past decade.’’ 
SEC. 2. REQUIRING CONGRESS TO OBTAIN AND PAY FOR 
LOCAL CURRENCIES USED TO PROVIDE PER 
DIEMS TO MEMBERS AND EMPLOYEES OF 
CONGRESS ON OFFICIAL FOREIGN TRAVEL. 
(a) OBTAINING AND PAYING FOR LOCAL CURRENCY 
PER DIEMS FOR MEMBERS AND EMPLOYEES ON OFFI-
CIAL FOREIGN TRAVEL.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The House of Representa-
tives and Senate may obtain local currencies of for-
eign nations for the purpose of providing a per diem 
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(E) from the chairman of a joint com-
mittee of the Congress, in the case of a member 
or employee of that committee. 
(3) LIMIT ON AMOUNT.—The amount of local 
currency provided for the use of an individual under 
this subsection may not exceed— 
(A) the equivalent of $75 per day per per-
son; or 
(B) the maximum per diem allowance es-
tablished under the authority of subchapter I of 
chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code, for 
employees of the United States Government 
while traveling in a foreign country, 
whichever is greater, exclusive of the actual cost of 
transportation. 
(4) REPAYMENT OF UNUSED AMOUNTS.—Any 
individual to whom the House of Representatives or 
the Senate provides a per diem under this subsection 
shall return to the House of Representatives or the 
Senate (as the case may be) any per diem provided 
to the Member or employee which remains unex-
pended as of the conclusion of the travel. Any 
amount returned in accordance with the previous 
sentence shall be transferred to the Secretary of the 
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Treasury, who shall use such amount for the pur-
poses of deficit reduction. 
(5) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.— 
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums 
as may be necessary for obtaining local currencies 
under this subsection, of which— 
(A) the amounts necessary for obtaining 
local currencies for the use of any individual 
whose pay is disbursed by the Chief Adminis-
trative Officer of the House of Representatives 
shall be appropriated from the applicable ac-
counts of the House of Representatives; and 
(B) the amounts necessary for obtaining 
local currencies for the use of any individual 
whose pay is disbursed by the Secretary of the 
Senate shall be appropriated from the contin-
gent fund of the Senate. 
(6) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 
(A) any reference to a ‘‘Member’’ of the 
House of Representatives includes a Delegate 
or Resident Commissioner to the Congress; and 
(B) the term ‘‘official foreign travel’’ 
means any travel outside of the United States 
for which the costs (including the costs of 
transportation, lodging, meals, and related ex-
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penses) may be covered by appropriated funds, 
including official funds of the House of Rep-
resentatives or Senate, under law or the Rules 
of the House of Representatives or the Stand-
ing Rules of the Senate. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 
(1) REPEAL
EXISTING
AUTHORITY.—Section 
502(b) of the Mutual Security Act of 1954 (22 
U.S.C. 1754(b)) is amended by striking paragraph 
(1). 
(2) MAINTENANCE
OF
EXISTING
REPORTING 
REQUIREMENTS.—Section 502(b)(3)(A) of such Act 
(22 U.S.C. 1754(b)(3)(A)) is amended by striking 
‘‘an authorization under paragraph (1)’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘an authorization under section 2(b) of the Con-
gressional Foreign Travel Reform Act of 2010.’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section and the amend-
ments made by this section shall apply with respect to fis-
cal year 2011 and each succeeding fiscal year. 
SEC. 3. ENHANCED DISCLOSURE AND OTHER RESTRIC-
TIONS 
RELATING 
TO 
MEMBER 
TRAVEL 
UNDER RULES OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTA-
TIVES. 
(a) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR OFFICIAL FOR-
EIGN TRAVEL BY HOUSE MEMBERS AND EMPLOYEES.— 
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(1) STATEMENT REQUIRED PRIOR TO UNDER-
TAKING
TRAVEL.—A Member or employee of the 
House of Representatives may not undertake any of-
ficial foreign travel unless, not later than 14 days 
prior to the date on which the travel begins, the 
Member or employee prepares and makes available 
for public inspection in accordance with subsection 
(b) a statement containing the following information: 
(A) A statement of worthiness regarding 
the purpose of the travel, including a descrip-
tion of how the travel relates to the Member’s 
or employee’s official duties. 
(B) A tentative itinerary for each day of 
the travel, including a list of the locations the 
Member or employee intends to visit and any 
individuals with whom the Member or employee 
intends to meet. 
(C) The names of any other individuals 
who are accompanying the Member or employee 
during the travel, without regard to whether 
such individuals are Members or employees of 
the House. 
(D) The amount of the per diem the Mem-
ber or employee requested to be provided for 
the travel, and whether the amount is greater 
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than the standard per diem provided under 
chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code. 
(E) A description of the aircraft to be used 
for transportation for the travel, and the Mem-
ber’s or employee’s best estimate of the costs of 
using such aircraft. 
(2) STATEMENT REQUIRED AFTER COMPLETION 
OF
TRAVEL.—Not later than 14 days after com-
pleting any official foreign travel, the Member or 
employee who undertook the travel shall prepare and 
make available for public inspection in accordance 
with subsection (b) a statement containing the fol-
lowing information: 
(A) A statement detailing the value, wor-
thiness, and educational benefit to the Member 
or employee of the travel. 
(B) The actual itinerary for the travel, in-
cluding a comprehensive statement of travel 
times, meetings, and other activities carried out 
during the travel. 
(C) The actual cost of the travel, itemized 
by the costs of— 
(i) transportation (including the iden-
tification of the providers of the transpor-
tation); 
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(ii) lodging (including the identifica-
tion of the providers of the lodging); and 
(iii) meals (including the identification 
of the providers of the meals). 
(D) How much, if any, of the per diem 
provided for the travel was unspent. 
(3) EXCEPTION FOR INFORMATION AFFECTING 
NATIONAL SECURITY.—A Member or employee may 
exclude from a statement prepared under this sub-
section any information which is classified or the 
disclosure of which would adversely affect national 
security, so long as the Member includes documenta-
tion in support of the exclusion in the statement pre-
pared under this subsection. 
(b) PUBLICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR REPORTS.— 
Each statement required to be prepared under subsection 
(a) with respect to official foreign travel of a Member or 
employee of the House of Representatives shall be made 
available for public inspection as follows: 
(1) The statement shall be submitted for publi-
cation in the Congressional Record. 
(2) The statement shall be posted on the official 
public website of the Clerk of the House of Rep-
resentatives. 
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(C) no other employee of the office accom-
panies the Member on such travel. 
(2) TRAVEL BY EMPLOYEES OF COMMITTEES.— 
An employee of the House of Representatives whose 
employing office is the office of a committee of the 
House of Representatives may not undertake any of-
ficial foreign travel unless— 
(A) the authorizing office for the travel is 
the office of the committee; 
(B) the travel is undertaken by the em-
ployee to accompany a Member who serves on 
the committee on the Member’s own official for-
eign travel; and 
(C) the number of employees accom-
panying the Members of the committee on such 
travel does not exceed the number of Members 
of the committee who are participating in such 
travel. 
(3) EXCEPTION FOR CERTAIN TRAVEL.—This 
subsection does not apply with respect to travel to 
a military installation or travel to a theater of oper-
ations of the Armed Forces. 
(e) REQUIRING EFFORTS TO REDUCE EXPENSES; 
RETURN OF UNSPENT PER DIEM.—Each Member and 
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employee of the House of Representatives who undertakes 
official foreign travel shall— 
(1) take such actions as may be necessary to re-
duce the costs incurred for such travel; and 
(2) return any per diem provided to the Mem-
ber or employee which remains unexpended as of the 
conclusion of the travel. 
(f) REGULATIONS.—This section shall be carried out 
in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Com-
mittee on House Administration of the House of Rep-
resentatives. 
(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi-
nitions apply: 
(1) The term ‘‘authorizing office’’ means, with 
respect to a Member or employee of the House of 
Representatives, the office which is authorized under 
law or the Rules of the House of Representatives to 
approve the use of appropriated funds, including of-
ficial funds of the House of Representatives, for offi-
cial travel outside of the United States by the Mem-
ber or employee. 
(2) The term ‘‘Member of the House of Rep-
resentatives’’ includes a Delegate or Resident Com-
missioner to the Congress. 
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(3) The term ‘‘official foreign travel’’ means 
any travel outside of the United States for which the 
costs (including the costs of transportation, lodging, 
meals, and related expenses) may be covered by ap-
propriated funds, including official funds of the 
House of Representatives, under law or the Rules of 
the House of Representatives. 
(h) STATEMENT OF RULEMAKING AUTHORITY OF 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.—This section is enacted 
by Congress as an exercise of the rulemaking power of 
the House of Representatives and shall be considered a 
part of the rules of the House of Representatives, with 
full recognition of the constitutional right of the House 
to change this section at any time, in the same manner 
and to the same extent as in the case of any other rule 
of the House. 
Æ 
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