ASA Connect

Dear All,

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently revised its 2012 guidance that restricted the travel of federal employees to professional/scientific conferences (as a response to the 2010 GSA conference excesses in Las Vegas.) The changes are summarized below in an email from the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA). They (and we at the ASA) are asking for feedback on the extent to which the changes address the concerns concerns. Please see below and follow the link to the new Memo and let me know of any continuing concerns.

Best,

Steve

------------------Message from COSSA Executive Director Wendy Naus-------------------

Hi all – As you may know, on November 25 the White House Office of Management and Budget released Memorandum M-17-08 to amend two sections of Memorandum M-12-12, which was released in 2012 and includes a section governing federal employees attending professional/scientific conferences. From our read, the new policy set in the November memo appears to address many of the concerns expressed by the scientific community in recent years.

Camille has outlined below what has changed since 2012. It would be helpful for us to know if these changes address your associations' concerns or if there are still challenges to be addressed that COSSA should work on. Please have a look at Camille's analysis and let us know your thoughts.

Wendy

---------------------------

Both memoranda share a broad goal of ensuring that the federal government serves as a good steward of taxpayer dollars, which includes rooting out wasteful spending on conferences.

The November memo (M-17-08) recognized that the original policy may have reduced Federal agencies' ability to perform useful functions, present scientific findings, and train, recruit and retain employees. It recognized the needs of the scientific community and the federal scientific enterprise while maintaining the spirit of M-12-12 with an emphasis on accountability of federal funds by adding that "agencies must ensure that Federal funds are used only for necessary and appropriate purposes."

In particular, the 2016 memo amends previous policy in the following ways:

With respect to agency staff attending non-agency sponsored conferences--

• Adding recognition of the importance of mission-related travel and conference in support agency operations.

• Adding that agencies should ensure that adjudications regarding conference attendance should be made in a timely manner - including pre-approval (as appropriate) for recurring conferences.

With respect to agency-sponsored conferences--

• Changing the requirement that "senior level" officials (Deputy Secretaries or equivalents) review spending for upcoming sponsored/hosted conferences exceeding $100,000 AND senior level approval of all future conference expenses exceeding $100,000 to requiring that each agency designate an appropriate official to approve estimated spending in excess of $500,000 (this applies to spending on any conference, agency-sponsored or not).

• Eliminating the prohibition on expenses in excess of $500,000.

• Reiterates that agencies must publicly post (on their website) a description of all agency-sponsored conferences (where the net expenses were in excess of $100,000).

• Removes the responsibility of the agency head to provide a description of all agency-sponsored conferences and gives that responsibility to "the agency" instead.

• Removes the responsibility of justifying expenses in excess of $500,000 from the agency head to "the agency."

Wendy A. Naus

Executive Director

Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)

www.cossa.org

@COSSADC #WhySocialScience

SAVE THE DATE: COSSA’s 2017 Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day will take place March 29-30, 2017 in Washington, DC

hi - i am not in government and i enjoy presenting research in conferences approximately biannually.  did i read properly than one person could have expenses of a half million dollars for a conference??  this is only expenses?  does this include purchase of the towncar and condo to lodge?  please clarify i assume i am misunderstanding!

Dear All,

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently revised its 2012 guidance that restricted the travel of federal employees to professional/scientific conferences (as a response to the 2010 GSA conference excesses in Las Vegas.) The changes are summarized below in an email from the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA). They (and we at the ASA) are asking for feedback on the extent to which the changes address the concerns concerns. Please see below and follow the link to the new Memo and let me know of any continuing concerns.

Best,

Steve

------------------Message from COSSA Executive Director Wendy Naus-------------------

Hi all – As you may know, on November 25 the White House Office of Management and Budget released Memorandum M-17-08 to amend two sections of Memorandum M-12-12, which was released in 2012 and includes a section governing federal employees attending professional/scientific conferences. From our read, the new policy set in the November memo appears to address many of the concerns expressed by the scientific community in recent years.

Camille has outlined below what has changed since 2012. It would be helpful for us to know if these changes address your associations' concerns or if there are still challenges to be addressed that COSSA should work on. Please have a look at Camille's analysis and let us know your thoughts.

Wendy

---------------------------

Both memoranda share a broad goal of ensuring that the federal government serves as a good steward of taxpayer dollars, which includes rooting out wasteful spending on conferences.

The November memo (M-17-08) recognized that the original policy may have reduced Federal agencies' ability to perform useful functions, present scientific findings, and train, recruit and retain employees. It recognized the needs of the scientific community and the federal scientific enterprise while maintaining the spirit of M-12-12 with an emphasis on accountability of federal funds by adding that "agencies must ensure that Federal funds are used only for necessary and appropriate purposes."

In particular, the 2016 memo amends previous policy in the following ways:

With respect to agency staff attending non-agency sponsored conferences--

• Adding recognition of the importance of mission-related travel and conference in support agency operations.

• Adding that agencies should ensure that adjudications regarding conference attendance should be made in a timely manner - including pre-approval (as appropriate) for recurring conferences.

With respect to agency-sponsored conferences--

• Changing the requirement that "senior level" officials (Deputy Secretaries or equivalents) review spending for upcoming sponsored/hosted conferences exceeding $100,000 AND senior level approval of all future conference expenses exceeding $100,000 to requiring that each agency designate an appropriate official to approve estimated spending in excess of $500,000 (this applies to spending on any conference, agency-sponsored or not).

• Eliminating the prohibition on expenses in excess of $500,000.

• Reiterates that agencies must publicly post (on their website) a description of all agency-sponsored conferences (where the net expenses were in excess of $100,000).

• Removes the responsibility of the agency head to provide a description of all agency-sponsored conferences and gives that responsibility to "the agency" instead.

• Removes the responsibility of justifying expenses in excess of $500,000 from the agency head to "the agency."

Wendy A. Naus

Executive Director

Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)

www.cossa.org

@COSSADC #WhySocialScience

SAVE THE DATE: COSSA’s 2017 Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day will take place March 29-30, 2017 in Washington, DC

Dear Dean,

The $500K refers to an agency's total spending for a conference, not per person.

Steve

PS. Sorry to all for the typo in the subject line where it should be OMB!

hi - i am not in government and i enjoy presenting research in conferences approximately biannually.  did i read properly than one person could have expenses of a half million dollars for a conference??  this is only expenses?  does this include purchase of the towncar and condo to lodge?  please clarify i assume i am misunderstanding!

Dear All,

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently revised its 2012 guidance that restricted the travel of federal employees to professional/scientific conferences (as a response to the 2010 GSA conference excesses in Las Vegas.) The changes are summarized below in an email from the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA). They (and we at the ASA) are asking for feedback on the extent to which the changes address the concerns concerns. Please see below and follow the link to the new Memo and let me know of any continuing concerns.

Best,

Steve

------------------Message from COSSA Executive Director Wendy Naus-------------------

Hi all – As you may know, on November 25 the White House Office of Management and Budget released Memorandum M-17-08 to amend two sections of Memorandum M-12-12, which was released in 2012 and includes a section governing federal employees attending professional/scientific conferences. From our read, the new policy set in the November memo appears to address many of the concerns expressed by the scientific community in recent years.

Camille has outlined below what has changed since 2012. It would be helpful for us to know if these changes address your associations' concerns or if there are still challenges to be addressed that COSSA should work on. Please have a look at Camille's analysis and let us know your thoughts.

Wendy

---------------------------

Both memoranda share a broad goal of ensuring that the federal government serves as a good steward of taxpayer dollars, which includes rooting out wasteful spending on conferences.

The November memo (M-17-08) recognized that the original policy may have reduced Federal agencies' ability to perform useful functions, present scientific findings, and train, recruit and retain employees. It recognized the needs of the scientific community and the federal scientific enterprise while maintaining the spirit of M-12-12 with an emphasis on accountability of federal funds by adding that "agencies must ensure that Federal funds are used only for necessary and appropriate purposes."

In particular, the 2016 memo amends previous policy in the following ways:

With respect to agency staff attending non-agency sponsored conferences--

• Adding recognition of the importance of mission-related travel and conference in support agency operations.

• Adding that agencies should ensure that adjudications regarding conference attendance should be made in a timely manner - including pre-approval (as appropriate) for recurring conferences.

With respect to agency-sponsored conferences--

• Changing the requirement that "senior level" officials (Deputy Secretaries or equivalents) review spending for upcoming sponsored/hosted conferences exceeding $100,000 AND senior level approval of all future conference expenses exceeding $100,000 to requiring that each agency designate an appropriate official to approve estimated spending in excess of $500,000 (this applies to spending on any conference, agency-sponsored or not).

• Eliminating the prohibition on expenses in excess of $500,000.

• Reiterates that agencies must publicly post (on their website) a description of all agency-sponsored conferences (where the net expenses were in excess of $100,000).

• Removes the responsibility of the agency head to provide a description of all agency-sponsored conferences and gives that responsibility to "the agency" instead.

• Removes the responsibility of justifying expenses in excess of $500,000 from the agency head to "the agency."

Wendy A. Naus

Executive Director

Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)

www.cossa.org

@COSSADC #WhySocialScience

SAVE THE DATE: COSSA’s 2017 Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day will take place March 29-30, 2017 in Washington, DC

That's still a huge amount of money to spend on sending people to a conference.