Claim for Transportation of Household Effects

A Member of Congress requested reconsideration of an employee's claim for reimbursement of the costs he incurred for the shipment of his household goods incident to a permanent change of station. Agency officials wrongly advised the employee that he could not be reimbursed for the cost of transporting newly acquired items of household furniture incident to a change of station from overseas to the United States, and the employee subsequently proceeded to ship the furnishings aboard a ship of foreign registry. The Merchant Marine Act of 1963 precluded reimbursement for the employee's costs incurred in the shipment by other than an American flag vessel.