House Republicans propose new bill to crack down on government conferences

A group of House Republicans introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require all government conferences that cost more than $25,000 to be cleared at the highest level of the relevant federal agency.

The Agency Conferences and Conventions Operating Under Necessary Transparency (Account) Act, H.R. 283, is a response to the discovery of a 2010 General Services Administration (GSA) conference in Las Vegas that cost more than $800,000. That led to a detailed House probe of GSA and the resignation of the GSA administrator.

"As we witnessed with the extravagant GSA Las Vegas conference last year, there is a clear lack of transparency regarding agency conferences," said bill sponsor Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.). "The Account Act will require fiscal responsibility of agencies holding conferences."

Members co-sponsoring the bill are Reps. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.).

Fleischmann on Tuesday introduced another bill, H.R. 282, that would allow states to return unwanted federal money to the government for the purpose of deficit reduction. That bill is the Returned Exclusively for Unpaid National Debt (Refund) Act.

"These bills are a step in the right direction toward curbing government spending and shedding light on government waste," he said. "Both issues were priorities in my first term, and I will continue to fight for them in my second."

---