[Request for Decision Concerning Entitlement of Interior Employee to Reimbursement for Subsistence and Travel Expenses]

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requested a decision concerning an employee's entitlement to reimbursement for lodging, meals, and travel expenses in connection with a directed reassignment. In lieu of that reassignment, the employee had elected to accept a transfer at a reduction in grade. The Merit Systems Protection Board subsequently found that BLM had acted improperly and ordered BLM to restore the employee to his former position and location. The employee claimed that since the reassignment was improper: (1) it should be considered to be temporary duty, entitling him to travel expense reimbursement; and (2) the Supreme Court, not the Back Pay Act, ruled that such expenses were reimbursable. GAO held that: (1) the remedial action of restoring an employee to his old position and location was not a basis for converting the time spent at the new duty station from permanent duty to temporary duty; and (2) the Back Pay Act provides the only remedy available to an employee to recover losses from improper personnel actions. Accordingly, the claim was denied.