With the General Services Administration under fire for a costly event held at the M Resort in Las Vegas back in 2010 on the taxpayers’ dime, a congressman from Florida introduced a measure on Tuesday to slash federal travel funds.

From his perch on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and as chairman of the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and Labor Policy Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, a freshman Republican, unveiled the Government Spending Accountability Act.

Ross’s legislation would cut federal travel budgets, cutting 2012 funding in half for 2013 and 2014. Ross is backing even more dramatic cuts for 2015, calling for travel costs to only be a quarter of what they were in the 2012 fiscal year.

A September report compiled by the staff of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, insisted that cutting travel budgets for civilian agencies by 75 percent would save the federal government $43.3 billion over the course of the next decade.

“Not only has the cost of civilian employee travel grown over the past few years, technology affords the opportunity for government employees to meet and perform business without the need for so much travel,” the report found. “Several states have taken advantage of this, as has much of the private sector. There is no reason federal employees should be exempt.”

When he introduced his bill on Tuesday, Ross pointed to the controversy over the GSA event in Las Vegas -- which led to the resignation of GSA Administrator Martha Johnson earlier in the month -- as a reason his measure should become law.

“The GSA Vegas vacation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to wasteful spending,” Ross insisted on Tuesday. “In a day and age when you can FaceTime from Beijing to Washington, text and call from one end of the globe to another, and the American taxpayer faces trillion-dollar deficits, spending $15 billion a year on travel is a luxury that is both no longer necessary and no longer affordable.”  

The Florida congressman is also pushing for more congressional oversight, and his bill would require federal agencies to file reports on travel costs to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at the start of each fiscal year. Ross’s bill would not apply to branches of the federal government dealing with national security and public safety.

Ross cited the bipartisan Simpson Bowles Commission, which was set up by President Barack Obama in 2010, which was entrusted with making recommendations to cut federal spending.

“As the Simpson Bowles Commission pointed out, ‘despite advances in technology, federal travel costs have ballooned in recent years, growing 56 percent between 2001 and 2006 alone.’ At the same time, budgets for all federal agencies grew at two to three times inflation from 2000-2012,” Ross noted.   

“The American taxpayer has had enough, and before we start talking about raising or changing taxes we need to go over the federal budget piece by piece and put an end to duplicative, wasteful or downright stupid spending,” Ross added. “Zero-based budgeting, biennial budgeting, sunset committees, pension reform and so much more is needed now. This is a start worth tens of billions over 10 years. This is a no-brainer.”

While Ross’s measure does not have a sponsor in the Senate, there have been attempts to pass similar legislation. A measure introduced by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., would cap costs for federal conferences at $500,000; would permit some private companies to chip in as long as there was no conflict of interest and the sponsors would be made public; and established other transparency measures passed by the Senate on Tuesday. Coburn insisted that his legislation would save taxpayers more than $65 million a year.



Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.