WASHINGTON - Between 2005 and 2011, the Department of Defense held 64 conferences that cost taxpayers more per attendee than the infamous October 2010 General Services Administration conference that resulted in the firing of multiple senior Administration officials, according to a letter sent today by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
“The Committee has analyzed thousands of documents obtained from federal agencies and citizen watchdogs related to conference spending in the Executive Branch," Issa wrote. “Any conference that cost taxpayers more per person than GSA’s 2010 conference in Las Vegas raised a red flag."
The Committee’s letter to the Department of Defense, including a list of the 64 conferences, can be found here and continues the Committee’s oversight of wasteful conference spending.
The Committee’s letter to Secretary Panetta follows 9 other letters sent to agencies who identified conferences that met the same cost benchmarks.
Links to all the letters can be found below.
• Department of Defense
• Department of Agriculture
• General Services Administration
• Department of Interior
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Department of Education
• Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Small Business Administration
• Social Security Administration
• USAID
