Request for Reimbursement of Noncommercial Lodging Expenses

An advance decision was requested on whether employees evacuated from Bangladesh and authorized a special subsistence allowance may be denied lodging expenses while occupying noncommercial facilities. The first evacuees received an instruction sheet which indicated that lodging receipts would not be required for payment of the subsistence allowance and that employees who elected to stay with friends and relatives would receive a safehaven subsistence allowance. These instructions were superseded by new instructions which terminated reimbursement on a fixed rate basis and provided that, effective December 15, 1979, the subsistence allowance was to be treated in the same manner as a per diem allowance under the lodging-plus system. Lodging expenses were required to be documented with receipts from commercial establishments. The Secretary of State determined not to authorize reimbursement of lodging expenses in noncommercial facilities. It was questioned whether the Secretary of State had such authority. The applicable statute states that the head of an agency may provide for payments to employees or their families where an evacuation is ordered because of imminent danger. The President delegated the authority to promulgate these regulations to the Secretary of State and asked the agencies to exercise their authority uniformly with respect to evacuees from different agencies from the same geographic area. The Secretary of State's determination was proper. The agency's action in denying reimbursment was not only proper, but required under the regulations. When the Secretary of State validly used his authority to preclude reimbursement of lodging expenses for evacuees staying with friends and relatives, the only discretion available to the agency was to further limit that reimbursement. Accordingly, the evacuees may not be reimbursed for noncommercial lodging expenses they may have incurred after December 15, 1979.