FROM THE AOC: Summer Strategy on Travel Restrictions

Your EW/EMS/IO community association, the AOC, has partnered with other associations that support DoD and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) to respond to the GSA scandal this past spring. The pending legislation is essential so that we can continue to educate and advocate for our community.

Please read this letter from ASAE on their perspective.


The House and Senate have now adjourned for the summer and will not return to Washington until September 10. Legislation addressing the GSA scandal is still pending, but the association community has made considerable progress in letting Congress know about our serious concerns. Specifically, we have educated many members of Congress on the unintended consequences contained in these proposals that would affect many association meetings and conferences and that would unreasonably restrict communications with federal agencies.

Here is a recap of what has happened on this issue:

• In response to inappropriate spending on conferences held by the GSA, on April 25, 2012 both the House and Senate passed identical amendments as part of larger bills limiting federal travel expenses and increasing transparency of agency travel. Unfortunately, the legislation contained provisions with unintended consequences that would have affected many meetings and conferences held by associations and would have greatly restricted contact with federal agencies.
• In response to this legislation, ASAE sent an open letter to Congress with more than 2,100 signatures expressing alarm and concern with the proposals. You can see this letter here. ASAE and our members met with Congressional offices explaining our concerns.
• The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee listened and incorporated our concerns by passing HR 4631, "The GSA Act of 2012". The bill is far less onerous to association meetings than the original language proposed in April. You can read our previous alert outlining the provisions of HR 4631 here.

While we have made considerable progress convincing Congress of our legitimate concerns, we are not out of the woods. The onerous provisions are still contained in two bills, S 1789, "The 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2012" passed by the Senate and HR 2146, "The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2012" passed by the House.

Over the summer Congressional recess, we ask that you meet with your members of Congress to share your concerns on this issue. Nothing is more effective that personal meetings to show Congress the impact this issue has on the private sector. To help you convey the importance of this issue, here is a one-pager on the value of face-to-face meetings.

We are confident that, in the end, we can prevent unreasonable restrictions from being enacted into law. But we must continue to educate Congress on this issue during the August recess and through the end of the year. Congress will consider some major bills during September and the lame duck period where the original proposals can still be considered.

Thanks again for the tremendous support all of you have shown on this critical issue.

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