The Forest Service requested a decision on whether it could pay two employees' claims for temporary lodging expenses at their official duty station pursuant to their evacuation from their government quarters. GAO held that the claimants were entitled to temporary lodging expenses, since: (1) they were evacuated from their government quarters under emergency circumstances; and (2) there were no oth...

The general rule prohibiting the payment of subsistence expenses at an employee's official duty station is not applicable. They were forced to evacuate their government quarters due to water contamination and the Forest Service decided to temporarily lodge the employees and their families at a hotel within their official duty station area until the water contamination problem was resolved. The For...