| For Immediate Release | For more information contact: |
| July 21, 1999 | Bill Walsh (651-296-0640) |
(St. Paul, MN...) Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum recently sent a memo to all members of the Minnesota House of Representatives outlining a new policy for travel reimbursements to conferences and meetings outside the state of Minnesota.
After auditing the travel expenses of the last two years, Sviggum set a goal of reducing costs to the taxpayers in this area by at least 30%. The audit showed that half the membership of the House did not travel at all, while a handful of members used up a large portion of the $220,000 spent on travel in the last two years.
In his letter to members, Sviggum wrote "The common sense rule in requesting travel should be whether or not it benefits your constituents. While I don't want to diminish the importance of obtaining information and facts, I believe we serve as Representatives to the people of Minnesota first and foremost."
House policy requires all out-of-state travel to be approved by the Speaker. Sviggum outlined seven guidelines he will use when determining whether to approve requests from members. Once a request has been approved by the Speaker, the cost of the trip still has to come out of a committee budget, requiring further approval from a committee chair.
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