With federal agencies under orders to cut waste and reduce spending on travel and conferences, an ASAE delegation met in March with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reinforce the importance of preserving the dialogue and exchange of ideas between government and private industries that so often occurs at association meetings and conferences.
The ASAE delegation included: John Graham, FASAE, CAE, ASAE president and CEO; Jim Clarke, CAE, ASAE senior vice president for public policy; Arlene Pietranton, PhD, FASAE, CAE, CEO of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and ASAE chair-elect; Joseph Lynch, general counsel of the Military Officers Association of America; and Michael Petricone, senior vice president of government and regulatory affairs of the Consumer Electronics Association. Attending from OMB were OMB Controller Daniel Werfel and Deputy Controller Norman Dong.
OMB and the Administration have taken a number of aggressive steps in the past year to cut waste, including requiring all agencies to reduce travel spending in FY 2013 by at least 30 percent from FY 2010 spending levels and institute a series of internal controls to tighten the approval process for travel and conference-planning. These steps, coupled with the $85 billion in sequester spending cuts that recently took effect, have led to a drastic reduction in government attendance at many conferences.
At its meeting with OMB, ASAE offered support for the Administration’s efforts to promote efficient spending but urged the Administration to factor in the role conferences play in fostering collaboration, education, professional development and information-sharing between the government and the private sector.
Graham told OMB that meetings have been demonized as wasteful spending dating back to the 2009 AIG conference after the company accepted government bailout money. Media attention and congressional scrutiny of meetings ramped up again last year after an inspector general’s report detailed wasteful spending at a 2010 General Services Administration (GSA) training conference. These events have had a serious negative impact on conference participation by government employees.
OMB’s Werfel agreed that “sometimes the pendulum can swing too far” and that the Administration needs to be careful not to cut travel budgets too deep. Werfel told the ASAE delegation that the Administration is committed to eliminating unnecessary travel and improving transparency of conference spending, but at the same time recognizes the importance of face-to-face meetings and the opportunities for training and collaboration that take place at various association conferences.
Participants in the meeting agreed that, moving forward, it would be helpful to create a protocol for conference planners to use in putting together meetings attended by federal employees. The protocol should include policies that will increase the likelihood that federal agencies could approve attendance, such as hotel room rates that reflect government per diems and appropriate social events. ASAE agreed to follow up with Controller Werfel’s office with some initial suggestions for a conference planning protocol. For more information, contact the ASAE Public Policy Department at 202-626-2703 or publicpolicy@asaecenter.org.