More On New Travel Rule

Since the impermanent links at the GSA web site are hard to use, we have uploaded the text of the Consolidated Appropriations Bill, 2008 (1.5 MB PDF file) as a convenience to our readers.

Two readers had insightful follow-up comments on our previous post about the bill:

Michael Wolf noted:

In your posting "Restriction on Certain Section 1353 Travel Reimbursements" (January 10, 2008), you state that the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 "imposes significant restrictions on the acceptance of 31 USC 1353 travel reimbursements by regulatory agencies. Section 620 of Division D of the Act provides that ‘no … regulatory agency or commission funded by this Act may accept payment or reimbursement from a non-Federal entity for travel … [from] a person or entity subject to regulation by such agency or commission…’"

The application of this restriction is narrower than it may appear at first glance. It does not apply to regulatory agencies government-wide.

Section 3 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 states:

Sec. 3. REFERENCES

Except as expressly provided otherwise, any reference to "this Act" contained in any division of this

Act shall be treated as referring only to the provisions of that division.

Therefore, the restrictions on the acceptance of travel payments under 31 USC 1353 in Section 620 of Division D apply only to those agencies and commissions that are funded by Division D, "funded by this Act" (unlike, for example, the anti-lobbying provision in section 720 of Division D which has government-wide application because it says "this or any other act." )

Another knowledgeable commenter agreed and went on to note that the lack of a definition of "regulatory agency" could lead to some confusion in interpreting the statute.