H.R. 4631 (112th): Government Spending Accountability Act of 2012

Introduced:
Apr 25, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Rep. Joe Walsh [R-IL8]
Status:
Died (Passed House)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

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Status

This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on September 11, 2012 but was never passed by the Senate.

Progress
Introduced Apr 25, 2012
Referred to Committee Apr 25, 2012
Reported by Committee Jun 27, 2012
Passed House Sep 11, 2012
Cosponsors
8 cosponsors (6R, 2D) (show)
Committees

House Oversight and Government Reform

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To amend title 5, United States Code, to institute spending limits and transparency requirements for Federal conference and travel expenditures, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Sep 12, 2012.
8 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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Citation

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

9/11/2012--Passed House amended.
Government Spending Accountability Act of 2012 or the GSA Act of 2012 - Requires each federal agency to post on its public website detailed information on employee presentations at conferences, including:
(1) the prepared text of any verbal presentation; and
(2) any visual, digital, video, or audio materials presented, including photographs, slides, and audio-visual recordings.
Limits to $500,000 the amount that any agency may spend to support a single conference.
Allows an agency head to waive such limitation for a specific conference after making a determination that a higher expenditure is justified as the most cost-effective option to achieve a compelling purpose.
Prohibits an agency from paying the travel expenses for more than 50 employees stationed in the United States to attend any international conference, unless the Secretary of State determines that attendance of such employees is in the national interest.
Requires each agency to post on its public website quarterly reports on each conference for which the agency paid travel expenses during the preceding three months.
Limits agency travel expenses for FY2013-FY2017 to 70% of the aggregate amount of such expenses for FY2010. Requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to establish guidelines for determining what expenses constitute travel expenses for purposes of the ceiling imposed on such expenses.
Exempts from such limitation military travel expenses.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/2/hr4631.

Summary

H.R. 4631 would require agencies to provide quarterly reports to the Congress about meetings or events involving travel expenses paid with federal funds. Over the 2013-2017 period, the bill would restrict agencies’ authority to obligate funds for travel expenses (other than military travel) to 70 percent of the amount spent on travel costs in 2010. In addition, under the legislation, agencies would be prohibited from spending more than $500,000 to support a single conference. Finally, H.R. 4631 would require agencies to post any presentation materials provided at a conference sponsored by an agency or attended by federal employees on their Web sites so it would be available to the public.

Cost

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that H.R. 4631 would have no significant impact on federal spending. 

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)

Other Citations

  • 5 U.S.C. Chapter 57