Federal Travel Regulation; Updating Glossary of Terms and E-Gov Travel Service Requirements

<RULE> GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION <CFR>41 CFR Parts 300-3, 301-11, 301-50, 301-52, 301-70, 301-71, and 301-73</CFR> <DEPDOC>[FTR Case 2023-03; Docket No. GSA-FTR-2023-0023, Sequence No. 2]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 3090-AK66</RIN> <SUBJECT>Federal Travel Regulation; Updating Glossary of Terms and E-Gov Travel Service Requirements</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP), General Services Administration (GSA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> GSA is issuing a final rule amending the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) to remove outdated information on deployment of the original E-Gov Travel Service (ETS) contract as agencies prepare for the next generation of ETS, known as ETSNext, to provide updated policy, and make miscellaneous editorial corrections. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective October 21, 2024. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ms. Cheryl D. McClain-Barnes, Office of Government-wide Policy at 202-208-4334 or email at <E T="03">travelpolicy@gsa.gov</E> for clarification of content. For information pertaining to the status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat Division at 202-501-4755 or <E T="03">GSARegSec@gsa.gov</E> . Please cite FTR case 2023-03. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> In November 2003, GSA's Federal Acquisition Service awarded master contracts for the first iteration of ETS, a web-based end-to-end travel management service. GSA published FTR Amendment 2003-07 (68 FR 71026) in December 2003, to amend the FTR on the required use of the new travel service. The original ETS implementation policies included timelines with specific dates for agencies to deploy ETS and migrate to the new platform. This information regarding ETS implementation is no longer needed because all mandatory users have deployed ETS (either initially, or upon expiration of an exception to its use) since it became available to civilian agencies in the first quarter of 2004. Contracts awarded under ETS2, the second iteration of ETS, are set to expire in June 2027. GSA published a proposed rule (88 FR 89650) on December 28, 2023, seeking to amend the FTR to remove outdated policy and provide updated policy as agencies prepare for the implementation of the next generation of ETS known as “E-Gov Travel Service, Next Generation” or “ETSNext” for short. Accordingly, this rule finalizes the proposed changes to FTR parts 300-3, 301-11, 301-50, 301-52, 301-70, 301-71, and 301-73. GSA is also amending the FTR to make minor editorial changes for clarity. Specifically, GSA is relocating a definitional term at § 301-50.6, namely “online self-service booking tool,” to part 300-3, “Glossary of Terms,” and updating the definition; renaming the term “Online booking tool (OBT);” and renumbering sections in part 301-50 in logical order. GSA is further updating the “Glossary of Terms” by capitalizing the initialism “ETS” in the body of the definition of “E-Gov Travel Service (ETS)” to be consistent with the definition heading. GSA is also removing and reserving § 301-73.101 and relocating relevant language from note 1 of the section regarding agency funding responsibility for ETS to a note to § 301-73.2. Further, GSA is revising the note to § 301-73.106 to remove duplicate text regarding travel agent services that align with present requirements for ETS2, but may not align with the terms of successor travel management service contract(s). Finally, GSA is adding a reference to the “extenuating circumstances” exception to the use of ETS and Travel Management Service (TMS) to existing exceptions at §§ 301-50.4 and 301-73.102. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Discussion of the Final Rule</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Summary of Significant Changes</HD> GSA has not made any significant changes to the regulatory language from the proposed to final rule. However, of note, the proposed rule duplicated some technical changes to an FTR final rule that took effect on April 16, 2024 (89 FR 12250); GSA removed these duplicate technical changes from this final rule as they are already in effect under the other rule. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Analysis of Public Comments</HD> GSA received one comment to the proposed rule. The commenter wants GSA to retain the original ETS deployment date in the FTR for ease of reference. A major purpose of this amendment is to remove the deployment date for the original ETS contract because it is no longer relevant as all mandatory users have deployed ETS (either initially, or upon expiration of an exception to its use) since it became available to civilian agencies in the first quarter of 2004. GSA also notes that the commenter can access historical versions of the FTR on the web. Accordingly, GSA will not change the final rule based on this comment. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Expected Cost Impact to the Public</HD> This rule will not result in an expected cost impact to the public. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Executive Orders 12866, 13563, and 14094</HD> Executive Order (E.O.) 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review) directs agencies to assess all costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity). E.O. 13563 (Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review) emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits, of reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, and of promoting flexibility. E.O. 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review) amends section 3(f) of E.O. 12866 and supplements and reaffirms the principles, structures, and definitions governing contemporary regulatory review established in E.O. 12866 and E.O. 13563. The Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has determined that this rulemaking is not a significant regulatory action and, therefore, it was not reviewed under section 6(b) of E.O. 12866. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Congressional Review Act</HD> OIRA has determined that this rule is not a “major rule” under 5 U.S.C. 804(2). Title II, Subtitle E of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (codified at 5 U.S.C. 801-808), also known as the Congressional Review Act or CRA, generally provides that before a rule may take effect, unless excepted, the agency promulgating the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule, to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the United States. This rule is excepted from CRA reporting requirements prescribed under 5 U.S.C. 801 as it relates to agency management or personnel under 5 U.S.C. 804(3)(B). <HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Regulatory Flexibility Act</HD> This final rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities within the meaning of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601, <E T="03">et seq.</E> This final rule is also exempt from Administrative Procedure Act pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2) because it applies to agency management or personnel. Therefore, an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis was not performed. <HD SOURCE="HD1">VI. Paperwork Reduction Act</HD> The Paperwork Reduction Act does not apply because the changes to the FTR do not impose recordkeeping or information collection requirements, or the collection of information from offerors, contractors, or members of the public that require the approval of the Office of Management and Budget under 44 U.S.C. 3501, <E T="03">et seq.</E> <LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HED">List of Subjects in 41 CFR Parts 300-3, 301-11, 301-50, 301-52, 301-70, 301-71, and 301-73</HD> Administrative practice and procedure, Government contracts, Government employees, Individuals with disabilities, Travel and transportation expenses. </LSTSUB> <SIG> <NAME>Robin Carnahan,</NAME> Administrator. </SIG> Therefore, GSA amends 41 CFR parts 300-3, 301-11, 301-50, 301-52, 301-70, 301-71, and 301-73 as set forth below: <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 300-3—GLOSSARY OF TERMS</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="41" PART="300-3"> 1. The authority citation for part 300-3 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority:</HD> 5 U.S.C. 5707; 40 U.S.C. 121(c); 49 U.S.C. 40118; 5 U.S.C. 5738; 5 U.S.C. 5741-5742; 20 U.S.C. 905(a); 31 U.S.C. 1353; E.O 11609, as amended, 3 CFR, 1971-1975 Comp., p. 586, Office of Management and Budget Circular No. A-126, Revised May 22, 1992. </REGTEXT> <REGTEXT TITLE="41" PART="300-3"> 2. Amend § 300-3.1 by— a. Revising the definition of “E-Gov Travel Service (ETS)”; and b. Adding in alphabetical order the definition ”Online booking tool (OBT)”. The revision and addition read as follows: <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 300-3.1</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>What do the following terms mean?</SUBJECT> <STARS/> <E T="03">E-Gov Travel Service (ETS)</E> —The Government-contracted, end-to-end travel management service that automates and consolidates the Federal travel process in a self-service environment, covering all aspects of official travel, including travel planning, authorization, reservations, ticketing, expense reimbursement, and travel management reporting. The ETS provides the services of a Federal travel management program as specified in § 301-73.1(a), (b), and (e) of this title. <STARS/> <E T="03">Online booking tool (OBT)</E> —An internet-based system that permits travelers to make reservations for transportation ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> air, rail, and car rental) and lodging. ETS and agency Travel Management Service providers incorporate an OBT. <STARS/> </SECTION> </REGTEXT> <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 301-11—PER DIEM EXPENSES</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="41" PART="301-11"> 3. T ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 25k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━