Traveling on temporary duty is not as lucrative as it used to be. Effective Oct. 1, the Pentagon made several revisions to its travel regulations that will mean less money for service members when they go on TAD. It's part of a broader cutback on government travel in recent years and just the latest in a long string of policy changes that will shave money from Defense Department budget accounts. Across the board, per diem rates will be slashed for long-term assignments, and troops will have to pay for a few more things with out-of-pocket cash. And your command might start picking up the tab for your duty-related cellphone calls. The details are threaded throughout a new 1,634-page version of the venerable document known as the "Joint Travel Regulations." Here's a short take on the five things you need to know:
1. Per diem cuts. From now on, troops traveling on temporary duty lasting longer than 30 days will not get the full per diem rate as published by the Defense Travel Management Office. For trips lasting between 31 and 180 days, troops will receive only 75 percent of the official per diem rate. And trips in excess of 180 days will warrant only 55 percent of the per diem rates. The reason: Defense officials believe troops on longer trips should be able to find more affordable housing by taking advantage of weekly or monthly rates.
The impact is significant. For example, a service member sent to San Diego for an eight-week assignment will no longer get the full $213 daily rate, which would have totaled $13,632. Instead, that member will receive only 75 percent of that total, or $10,224.
On longer trips, the impact will be more dramatic. For example, for a seven-month stay in Norfolk, Virginia, the stated daily per diem rate of $149 previously would have added up to $31,290. Now, with the per diem payment reduced to 55 percent of the official rate, that same trip will result in a reimbursement of $17,210.
2. Pay for your own laundry. The new rules also say troops can no longer claim reimbursement for several miscellaneous items. Specifically, fees for laundry services, baggage tips and bank-machine fees are now included among the items that fall under "meals and incidental expenses" and should be covered by the overall per diem payment rather than be reimbursed as separate expenses.
3. No expensing cell calls.The new travel regulations have eliminated reimbursements for cellphone use and calls. From now on, those will be reclassified as "mission-related" rather than "travel-related." In practical terms, that means anyone seeking additional money to cover cellphone expenses while on TAD will have to file a claim with their own command. Details of how that might affect individuals will vary from command to command, and perhaps even unit to unit.
4. Part of a bigger squeeze. The new moves are part of a broader governmentwide effort to curtail big spending on the road following a scandal stemming from an October 2010 conference on the Las Vegas strip for about 300 employees of the Government Services Administration. The group racked up a total bill of $822,000 at a luxurious spa and casino and on parties that included a clown and a mind-reader. News reports about the spree emerged in 2012 and prompted outrage from government watchdog groups, which led to heightened scrutiny of all government travel spending, including within the Defense Department.
5. Are there exceptions? Military travelers can't count on it, but yes, there may be exceptions to the new reduced per diem rates. If service members believe they are unable to cover basic living costs while on the road within the new lower reimbursement rates, they can contact their Commercial Travel Office, or CTO, which will do a thorough review. If the CTO determines that more affordable lodging is not available, officials can process a formal exemption request for a higher TAD lodging stipend. However, no exemptions will be made for the reduced rates for the meals and incidental expenses components of the per diem rate.
Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.
