Entitlement to Transportation of Privately Owned Motor Vehicle

GAO was asked for a decision as to whether a portion of the Joint Travel Regulations could be amended to authorize the transportation, including overland, of privately owned motor vehicles belonging to members of the uniformed service who retired or were separated from the service as a direct result of illness or injury. Under the current provisions, when a member on active duty is officially reported as dead, injured, ill, or missing, the member's privately owned motor vehicle may be shipped at Government expense, including overland transportation. If a member is reported injured or ill, the transportation provided is authorized only when the anticipated period of hospitalization or treatment is expected to be of prolonged duration. The vehicle may be shipped to the member's home of record, to the member's dependents, to his next of kin, or any other person entitled to receive the member's effects. Cases have arisen where a member who met these qualifications has been: (1) released from the hospital to which admitted after officially reported as ill or injured; (2) separated from the service and placed on the temporary disability retired list; or (3) sent home for treatment in a Veterans' Administration hospital. In any of these cases, there is a possibility that the member concerned is no longer on active duty but is not physically able to drive an automobile upon leaving the hospital. The amendment would authorize the shipment of such a member's vehicle. The applicable statute clearly does not authorize the proposed amendment to the regulations which would include persons other than members on active duty. GAO believes that it is well established that where a statute, as this one, is unambiguous and the directions specific, its plain meaning may not be altered or extended by administrative regulations, nor may the regulations attempt to add to the statute something which is not there. The statutory provisions are clearly stated so as to apply only to a member of a uniformed service on active duty, and they do not extend entitlement to any member whose active duty status has terminated. Accordingly, the proposed regulatory amendment is not authorized without additional statutory authority.