AnCon09 Travel Policy

March 01, 2009

FEDERAL TRAVEL POLICY

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Presented by Queenie Cox

March 01, 2009

The overall objective of this session is to provide you a “brief” overview on Federal government travel policy.

So, let’s get started!

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Objective

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Federal travel policy is based on various laws

March 01, 2009

Public Law 105-264 ◦ The Travel and Transportation Reform Act (TTRA) of

1998 mandates that federal employees use the government contractor-issued travel charge card for all payments of expenses related to official government travel unless an exemption has been granted.

Public Law 109-115 ◦ Section 846 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of

1006 requires each Executive department and agency to “evaluate the credit worthiness of an individual before issuing the individual government travel charge card.”

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Laws & Regulations

March 01, 2009

Federal Travel Regulations41 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the regulation that implements statutory requirements and policies for travel by Federal civilian employees.

Most common name for 41 CFR is the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR).

Agency responsibilities are contained in Subchapter D for Chapter 301 (TDY Allowances)

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March 01, 2009

Joint Travel Regulations (JTR)

The governing regulations for OSD and Defense Agency employees.

The JTR is guided by the FTR and based on the same civilian governing statutes, regulations and

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March 01, 2009

Federal Travel Regulation (FTR), published by GSA (41 CFR 300-304); the Department of State Standardized Regulations (DSSR) for Government Civilians in Foreign Areas, issued by State Department; and regulations published by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)(CFR, title 5);

The United States Code, primarily sections found in title 5 (especially chapter 57, concerning allowances for

travel, transportation, and subsistence) and title 10; Executive Orders, General Services Administration (GSA)

Commuted Rate Schedule, and DoD directives;and Decisions of the U.S. Comptroller General (GAO), the

Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (formerly GSA Board of

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JTR Regulations

March 01, 2009

Joint Federal Travel Regulation (JFTR)

The governing regulations for uniformed personnel

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March 01, 2009

AO may waive the rule to reimburse a traveler in excess of a roundtrip taxi fare when TDY is extended unexpectantly. Travelers under the FTR may not be reimbursed.

JFTR travelers may be directed to certain lodging whereas, FTR and JTR travelers may not. However, FTR and JTR travelers are “encouraged” to use government quarters and/or FedRooms. Note: JTR travelers may be required to use

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JFTR difference between the JTR & FTR

March 01, 2009

Prudent Rule and Federal Government Standard

Federal employees and those who are traveling on behalf of the Federal government must exercise the same care in incurring expenses that a prudent person would exercise if

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March 01, 2009

Generally, individuals traveling on official business on behalf of the government may be provided and reimbursed for travel allowances and expenses.

The government may pay only those expenses essential to the transaction of official business.

Individuals must be in a travel status in order to be entitled to allowances and expenses. 11

Allowable Expenses

March 01, 2009

Travelers must have written or electronic authorization in advance of incurring any travel expense. The exception is if it is not practicable or possible to obtain such authorization prior to travel. In that case, the travel may be approved after-the-fact.

IMPORTANT NOTE Written or electronic advance authorization is required

for:◦ Use of reduced fares for group or charter arrangements;◦ Payment of a reduced per diem rate;◦ Acceptance of payment from a non-Federal source for travel

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Advance Authorization to Travel

March 01, 2009

Use of travel above coach-class; Use of extra fare trains; Actual expenses; Exemption of a traveler from using a

Government contractor-issued travel charge card;

Request for disability or special needs; A rest stop en route or rest period at TDY

location before reporting for duty;13

Specific Authorization or Prior

March 01, 2009

Travel by ship; Use of a Government aircraft; Travel expenses related to emergency travel; Travel expenses related to travel to a foreign

area; and Transportation expenses related to threatened

law enforcement/investigative employees and members of their families.

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Con’t

March 01, 2009

Travelers must be in a travel status more than 12 hours in order to be paid per diem. Travelers cannot circumvent this requirement by taking a longer route to an assignment, even if done inadvertently.

For less than 12-hours, the traveler is entitled to transportation costs to and from the TDY location.

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Travel Status

March 01, 2009

When travel is more than 12-hours but less than 24-hours, your allowance is 75% of the applicable M&IE rate. If overnight lodging is required, reimbursement will be for actual lodging costs not to exceed the maximum lodging rate for the TDY location.

When travel is 24-hours or more, on the day of departure you will receive 75% of the applicable M&IE rate; full days you will receive 100% of the applicable M&IE rate; and on the last day of travel,

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Travel more than 12-hours

March 01, 2009

Overall, a traveler’s reimbursement will be limited to the cost of travel by a direct route or on an uninterrupted route. Additional costs incurred for traveling an indirect route such as an unofficial stop or a stopover for personal reasons that exceeds 4 hours or causes a through fare to become a point-to-point fare by delaying the stopover for personal reasons will be the responsibility of the traveler. 17

Transportation

March 01, 2009

Lodging plus◦ Actual lodging costs not to exceed the maximum

lodging rate Actual◦ Actual expense reimbursement

Per diem Reduced per diem or flat rate

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Per Diem Expenses

March 01, 2009

Travelers are required to use the agency’s ETS and its component units for all travel arrangements. Exceptions to this requirement are:◦ Lodging reservations for conferences;◦ OCONUS travel;◦ Arrangements made by a non-Federal source,

delegation or another agency;◦ Agency head exempts certain types of travel

arrangements; and

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ETS

March 01, 2009

Agencies are not required to use the authorized vendor’s embedded TMC.

Travel Services Solutions Schedule is available to agencies as a part of the ETS one stop shopping initiative and may be integrated with ETS.

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Accommodated TMCs

March 01, 2009

Travelers are required to use a Government contractor-issued travel charge card for all travel related expenses unless they have an exemption.

For IBAs, travelers must provide a tax exemption certificate to lodging vendors to exclude state and local taxes from their hotel bills.

Special cardholders whose account contains a “9” in the account number’s sixth position, is actually using the agency’s CBA and must ensure the vendor does not charge state and local taxes

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Travel Charge Card

March 01, 2009

All cardholders and approving/certifying officials must receive general and refresher training on the government charge card;

Personal credit cards shall not be used to purchase a transportation ticket for official Government travel;

Split disbursement and salary offset are mandatory IAW Appendix B; and

Contractors are not authorized to use contract

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Travel Charge Card con’t

March 01, 2009

City Pair Program◦ Mandatory users of GSA’s city pair contract must use the contract

carrier unless the traveler has an approved exemption. Personal travel shall not be used for any leg of

FedRooms◦ Travelers must give first consideration to the commercial lodging

facilities contracted by GSA under the FedRooms lodging program that meet the fire safety requirements unless one or more conditions stated in 41 CFR 301-50.8 exists.

Car Rental◦ When authorized to use a rental vehicle , travelers must rent a

vehicle from a vendor that participates in the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) Government Car Rental Agreement unless the travel is OCONUS and no agreement is in

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Other Mandatory Travel

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Exceptions to Policy City Pair Program Lodging Credit card

March 01, 2009

Space on a scheduled contract flight is not available in time to accomplish the purpose of your travel, or use of contract service would require you to incur unnecessary overnight lodging costs which would increase the total cost of the trip;

The contractor’s flight schedule is inconsistent with explicit policies of your Federal department or agency with regard to scheduling travel during normal working hours;

A non-contract carrier offers a lower fare to the general public that, if used, will result in a lower total trip cost to the Government (the combined costs of transportation, lodging, meals, and related expenses considered). Note: This exception does not apply if the contract carrier offers the same or lower fare and has seats available at that fare, or if the fare offered by the non-contract carrier is restricted to Government and military travelers performing official business and may be purchased only with a contractor-issued charge card, centrally billed account (e.g., YDG, MDG, QDG, VDG, and similar fares) or GTR where the two previous options are not available;

Cost effective rail service is available and is consistent with mission requirements; or Smoking is permitted on the contract air carrier and the nonsmoking section of the

contract aircraft is not acceptable to you. 41 CFR 301-10.107

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Non-Contract Carrier Exception

March 01, 2009

“(i) An FedRooms facility is not available at the location you need (e.g., there are no FedRooms facilities within a reasonable proximity of your temporary duty station, or there are no vacancies at the FedRooms facilities at that location). (Your agency’s TMS or E-Gov Travel Service (ETS) must provide you with a list of alternative facilities that meet the fire safety requirements of the Act).

(ii) Your agency has other contractual arrangements with commercial lodging facilities that meet the FEMA fire safety requirements at a lower cost than FedRooms properties.

(iii) Your agency determines on an individual case-by-case basis that it is not practical to use FedRooms facilities to meet mission requirements.

(iv) You are attending a conference with prearranged lodging accommodations and are required to book lodging directly with the lodging facility.

(v) Your travel is OCONUS.”

41 CFR XXX

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FedRooms Exception

March 01, 2009

Travelers are required to use a Government contractor-issued travel charge card for all related expenses unless they have an exemption.

Agency head may exempt a traveler from using a Government contractor-issued travel charge card; however, the Administrator of General Services (GSA) must be notified of the reason for the exemption.

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Credit Card Exception

March 01, 2009

Training and communicating with travelers is vital

Develop a robust training program◦ Semi-formal◦ Brown bag lunch sessions◦ Refresher training

Implement various media to communicate with travelers and approving officials◦ Newsletters◦ Websites◦ E-mail

Provide incentives for attending training 28

Training & Communications

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Thinking about a question?

Ask me now!

March 01, 2009

Queenie Cox [email protected]

WO-MEN Travel Professionals www.wo-men-travelprofessionals.org

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Thank You!