22 U.S.C. § 4081 — Travel and related expenses
submitted 46 years ago by Pub. L. 96-465 to r/title-22-FOREIGN-RELATIONS-AND-INTERCOURSE · 1,488 words · no verdicts yet
This section authorizes the Secretary to pay Foreign Service travel, relocation, household-effects, vehicle, family-visitation, medical, and death-related expenses. It sets specific limits and conditions for many of those payments.
The Secretary may pay travel and related expenses of Service members and their families for: (1) travel to and from assigned posts; (2) authorized or required home leave; (3) family members accompanying, going before, or following a member to temporary duty; (4) representational travel in the assigned country, or outside it when no more than one family member participates; (5) necessary medical travel abroad where no suitable person or facility is available, including an attendant for a person too ill to travel alone, an attendant for a child too young to travel alone, and care for a family member unable to remain at the post; (6) rest-and-recuperation travel for U.S. citizens serving at locations the Secretary designates, to another location abroad with different conditions or to the United States or its territories. Unless the Secretary specifies otherwise in extraordinary circumstances, (6) covers one round trip per person during a continuous 2-year tour and two during a continuous 3-year tour.
The Secretary may also pay for (7) moving family members and their furniture, household and personal effects, including automobiles, away from a dangerous post and returning them when conditions end or to a reassignment post; (8) family-visitation trips when official orders prevent the family from accompanying the member or require the family to leave because of danger. For a U.S.-located family, no more than two round trips may be paid in 12 months; for a family abroad, trips may not cost more than two less-than-first-class round trips to the District of Columbia. (9) Round-trip family-visitation travel in personal-hardship emergencies, but travel to the post for family members is allowed only when an official order prevents them from living there.
The Secretary may pay (10) preparation and transportation of remains of a member or family member who dies abroad, in travel status, or in the United States, to the designated U.S. home or a no-more-distant place; (11) transporting household effects to successive posts and, at separation, to the member’s residence or, after death, the family’s residence; and (12) packing, unpacking, moving to or from storage, and storing effects when the member is away, the post cannot receive or use them, or storage serves the public interest or saves money. For a new assignment, this coverage runs from departure from the last post, or a new member’s residence, until 3 months after arrival or establishment of quarters, whichever comes first, with an extraordinary-circumstances extension of up to 90 days. After separation, storage is limited to 3 months, with the same possible 90-day extension.
(13) The Secretary may transport one privately owned vehicle when water, rail, or air transport is necessary or useful. Normally only one vehicle may be transported in each 48-month period of continuous overseas service. A replacement may be transported if the Secretary decides in advance that replacement is needed for reasons beyond the member’s control and for the Government’s interest, or if it is incident to reassignment and costs no more than transporting the replaced vehicle. (14) The Secretary may pay travel and relocation for members and families assigned to or within the United States, its territories or possessions, or Puerto Rico, including assignments under title 5 chapter 33 subchapter VI when the member signs the required comparable agreement.
(15) For a member assigned abroad, the Secretary may pay one round trip each year for each child under 21: (A) for a child who does not regularly live with the member to visit the member, if the member receives no education allowance for that child; (B) for a child who regularly lives with the member to visit the other parent in another country, if the child does not regularly attend school in that country; or (C) for one parent to visit children abroad who do not regularly live with that parent, if that parent receives no education allowance for them. The cost may not exceed the cost of a round trip between the post and the other parent’s residence, or, if the child lives with neither parent, the child’s residence.
The Secretary may pay the travel and related expenses of members of the Service and their families, including costs or expenses incurred for—
proceeding to and returning from assigned posts of duty;
authorized or required home leave;
family members to accompany, precede, or follow a member of the Service to a place of temporary duty;
representational travel within the country to which the member of the Service is assigned or, when not more than one family member participates, outside such country;
obtaining necessary medical care for an illness, injury, or medical condition while abroad in a locality where there is no suitable person or facility to provide such care (without regard to those laws and regulations limiting or restricting the furnishing or payment of transportation and traveling expenses), as well as expenses for—
an attendant or attendants for a member of the Service or a family member who is too ill to travel unattended or for a family member who is too young to travel alone, and
a family member incapable of caring for himself or herself if he or she remained at the post at which the member of the Service is serving;
rest and recuperation travel of members of the Service who are United States citizens, and members of their families, while serving at locations abroad specifically designated by the Secretary for purposes of this paragraph, to—
other locations abroad having different social, climatic, or other environmental conditions than those at the post at which the member of the Service is serving, or
locations in the United States or its territories, including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands;
except that, unless the Secretary otherwise specifies in extraordinary circumstances, travel expenses under this paragraph shall be limited to the cost for a member of the Service, and for each member of the family of the member, of 1 round trip during any continuous 2-year tour and of 2 round trips during any continuous 3-year tour;
removal of the family members of a member of the Service, and the furniture and household and personal effects (including automobiles) of the family, from a Foreign Service post where there is imminent danger because of the prevalence of disturbed conditions, and the return of such individuals, furniture, and effects to such post upon the cessation of such conditions, or to such other Foreign Service post as may in the meantime have become the post to which the member of the Service has been reassigned;
trips by a member of the Service, and members of his or her family, for purposes of family visitation in situations where the family of the member is prevented by official order from accompanying the member to, or has been ordered from, the assigned post of the member because of imminent danger due to the prevalence of disturbed conditions, except that—
with respect to any such member whose family is located in the United States, the Secretary may pay the costs and expenses for not to exceed two round trips in a 12-month period; and
with respect to any such member whose family is located abroad, the Secretary may pay such costs and expenses for trips in a 12-month period as do not exceed the cost of 2 round trips (at less than first class) to the District of Columbia;
roundtrip travel to or from an employee’s post of assignment for purposes of family visitation in emergency situations involving personal hardship, except that payment for travel by family members to an employee’s post of assignment may be authorized under this paragraph only where the family of the member is prevented by official order from residing at such post.1
preparing and transporting to the designated home in the United States or to a place not more distant, the remains of a member of the Service, or of a family member of a member of the Service, who dies abroad or while in travel status or, if death occurs in the United States, transport of the remains to the designated home in the United States or to a place not more distant;
transporting the furniture and household and personal effects of a member of the Service (and of his or her family) to successive posts of duty and, on separation of a member from the Service, to the place where the member will reside (or if the member has died, to the place where his or her family will reside);
packing and unpacking, transporting to and from a place of storage, and storing the furniture and household and personal effects of a member of the Service (and of his or her family)—
when the member is absent from his or her post of assignment under orders or is assigned to a Foreign Service post to which such furniture and household and personal effects cannot be taken or at which they cannot be used, or when it is in the public interest or more economical to authorize storage;
in connection with an assignment of the member to a new post, except that costs and expenses may be paid under this subparagraph only for the period beginning on the date of departure from his or her last post or (in the case of a new member) on the date of departure from the place of residence of the member and ending on the earlier of the date which is 3 months after arrival of the member at the new post or the date on which the member establishes residence quarters, except that in extraordinary circumstances the Secretary may extend this period for not more than an additional 90 days; and
in connection with separation of the member from the Service, except that costs or expenses may not be paid under this subparagraph for storing furniture and household and personal effects for more than 3 months, except that in extraordinary circumstances the Secretary may extend this period for not more than an additional 90 days;
transporting, for or on behalf of a member of the Service, a privately owned motor vehicle in any case in which the Secretary determines that water, rail, or air transportation of the motor vehicle is necessary or expedient for all or any part of the distance between points of origin and destination, but transportation may be provided under this paragraph for only one motor vehicle of a member during any 48-month period while the member is continuously serving abroad, except that another motor vehicle may be so transported as a replacement for such motor vehicle if such replacement—
is determined, in advance, by the Secretary to be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the member and in the interest of the Government, or
is incident to a reassignment when the cost of transporting the replacement motor vehicle does not exceed the cost of transporting the motor vehicle that is replaced;
the travel and relocation of members of the Service, and members of their families, assigned to or within the United States (or any territory or possession of the United States or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico), including assignments under subchapter VI of chapter 33 of title 5 (notwithstanding section 3375(a) of such title, if an agreement similar to that required by section 3375(b) of such title is executed by the member of the Service); and
in the case of one or more children below age 21 of a member of the Service assigned abroad, 1 round-trip per year—
for each child to visit the member abroad if the child does not regularly reside with the member and the member is not receiving an education allowance or educational travel allowance for the child under section 5924(4) of title 5,
for each child to visit the other parent of the child if the other parent resides in a country other than the country to which the member is assigned and the child regularly resides with the member and does not regularly attend school in the country in which the other parent resides, or
for one of the child’s parents to visit the child or children abroad if the child or children do not regularly reside with that parent and that parent is not receiving an education allowance or educational travel allowance for the child or children under section 5924(4) of title 5,
except that the cost of round-trip travel under this paragraph may not exceed the cost of round-trip travel between the post to which the member is assigned and the residence of the other parent, or between the post to which the member is assigned and the residence of the child if the child does not reside with a parent.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 96–465, title I, § 901, Oct. 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 2124; Pub. L. 101–246, title I, § 148, Feb. 16, 1990, 104 Stat. 38; Pub. L. 102–138, title I, §§ 145, 146, Oct. 28, 1991, 105 Stat. 668, 669; Pub. L. 107–228, div. A, title III, §§ 315(a), 328, Sept. 30, 2002, 116 Stat. 1379, 1387; Pub. L. 109–234, title I, § 1602(d)(1), June 15, 2006, 120 Stat. 442; Pub. L. 110–321, § 2(1), Sept. 19, 2008, 122 Stat. 3535; Pub. L. 117–81, div. E, title LIII, § 5304, Dec. 27, 2021, 135 Stat. 2361.)
- 1980Enacted · Pub. L. 96-465 · 94 Stat. 2124
- 1990Amended · Pub. L. 101-246 · 104 Stat. 38
- 1991Amended · Pub. L. 102-138 · 105 Stat. 668, 669
- 2002Amended · Pub. L. 107-228 · 116 Stat. 1379, 1387
- 2006Amended · Pub. L. 109-234 · 120 Stat. 442
- 2008Amended · Pub. L. 110-321 · 122 Stat. 3535
- 2021Amended · Pub. L. 117-81 · 135 Stat. 2361
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 96-465 on 1980-10-17.
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