NASA clamps down on travel spending

Event planners hoping to book NASA speakers: You have a problem.

The space agency will continue to cut its travel expenditures and conference spending in 2013 as it readies for sequestration and makes good on President Barack Obama’s executive order to promote efficient agency spending.

While travel and conference attendance have not been banned entirely, the new criteria ensure few if any NASA employees will be jetting off to events. ("Local Center" conferences are still permitted, so long as "there are no associated travel costs and attendance contributes to the agency's core mission.") To attend a domestic conference that requires travel, the event must:

1. Be "essential and/or necessary;"
2. Contribute to NASA's core mission;
3. "Substantially involve" the attendee (moderating a panel does not qualify, though presenting may); and
4. Remote participation by phone or video conference is not possible;

NASA released a statement to FCW on March 12 after rumors swirled when NASA employees scheduled to speak at events had to cancel.

"NASA has moved aggressively to reduce its conference spending, and over the past calendar year has reduced costs by 30 percent," the statement said. "In addition, the agency reduced travel costs by $21 million in Fiscal Year 2012. As we address the impact of sequestration on the agency’s operations, we will continue to look for ways to more efficiently and cost-effectively carry out the agency’s missions of exploration, scientific discovery, and research and development."

The agency’s policy was established in January, and affects all NASA centers and personnel, according to a spokesperson.

In a March 13 email to agency employees and contractors that included the new policy guidelines, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr., wrote that "It should be no surprise that sequestration has required us to take a hard look at realizing savings while minimizing mission impacts.... These guidelines call for increased scrutiny of and reductions in travel and training expenditures for the remainder of FY 2013. They also call for new limits on monetary awards as well as conference sponsorships and attendance."

The new guidelines apply "to NASA employees and to all contract employees, including JPL employees, to extent permissible," Bolden wrote. "You should know that Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and I have already begun to adjust our activities in line with these guidelines. We have both canceled travel and participation in the April National Space Symposium in Colorado and I have also canceled a planned overseas trip."

Bolden also stressed that NASA does not plan to furlough employees, and that no changes have been made to agency hiring policy.