GSA Proposes Amendment to Federal Travel Regulation on Implementation of eTravel

GSA #10025

June 30, 2003
Contact: Eleni Marin (202) 501-1231
eleni.martin@gsa.gov

Washington, DC - The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) proposed an amendment to the Federal Travel Regulation requiring executive branch agencies to begin implementing the eTravel Service (eTS) no later than December 31, 2004 with complete agency-wide migration no later than September 30, 2006. The proposed regulation was published in the Federal Register on June 30, 2003 (FTR Case 2003-303).

The GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy, Office of Transportation and Personal Property, will accept comments on the proposed rule for 30 days.

For comments to be considered in the final rule, they must be submitted no later than July 30, 2003. Submit comments in writing to: GSA, Regulatory Secretariat (MVA), 1800 F Street, N.W., Room 4035, ATTN: Laurie Duarte, Washington, DC 20405 or email FTRCase.2003-303@gsa.gov

The vision of the eTravel initiative is to deliver a unified, simplified service that offers a cost-effective travel experience, supports excellent management, and results in superior customer satisfaction.

The proposed amendment to the FTR will amend the FTR requirements dealing with employees' use of their agencies Travel Management Service and the eTravel Service, as well as agencies' internal policies, procedures and requirements and travel programs. It states that the eTravel Project Management Office will provide migration-planning tools, coordinate migration-planning meetings and provide migration-planning support beginning July 2003. The proposed rule would require agencies to submit migration plans by March 31, 2004, begin implementing the eTravel Service no later than December 31, 2004 and complete migration for full agency-wide use by September 30, 2006.

The eTravel Service will provide governmentwide web-based, world-class travel management service for all federal agencies to use. The contract for this service will be awarded mid-summer and will be available for agencies to use by the end of 2003. The commercially hosted service will provide a fully integrated service that is vendor-owned, vendor-hosted and vendor-operated. This will minimize the government's capital investment and downstream maintenance costs.

GSA is a centralized federal procurement and property management agency created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public. It acquires, on behalf of federal agencies, office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies, and services. Additionally, the Office of Citizen Services and Communications (OCSC) within GSA provides the resources for citizens to access federal, state and local information in a variety of ways�via the Web (FirstGov.gov), e-mail, telephone, fax, or print.