GBTA Severely Disappointed in Congress’ Failure to Fully Fund DHS

Stop Gap Measure Provides Only One More Week of Funding

Alexandria, VA (February 28, 2015) – Last night, Congress passed a bill that provides one more week of funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when legislators will again attempt to pass a full-year funding bill. The statement below can be attributed to Michael W. McCormick, Executive Director and COO of the Global Business Travel Association.

“The Global Business Travel Association is disappointed that Congress was not able to fully fund DHS through the rest of the fiscal year, instead choosing to leave DHS in limbo with the continued threat of a shutdown just one week from now. The travel community and travel programs need certainty.

The failure to pass a full-year funding bill could unnecessarily disrupt business travel, an industry that will account for $310.2 billion in spending during 2015, directly impacting the economy. DHS must now spend time again preparing for a possible shutdown which could also delay planned enhancements to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) PreCheck and Global Entry Programs.

In addition, GBTA’s Business Traveler Study 2014: The Cost of Mishaps, looked at how travel disruptions impact the economy. Overall, a business travel-related mishap costs a traveler an average of $1,475 in missed work and out-of-pocket expenses and 2.3 work days lost.

For the sake of our economy at large, Congress must stop moving from crisis to crisis. We strongly urge Congress to work together quickly to make sure that essential government agencies, such as DHS, can continue to provide the essential services they are intended to deliver. ”

CONTACT: Colleen Lerro Gallagher, +1 703-236-1133, cgallagher@gbta.org
Gayle Kansagor, +1 202-295-8775, gayle.kansagor@harbourgrp.com

About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area with operations on six continents. GBTA’s 9,000-plus members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA and the GBTA Foundation deliver world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media to a growing global network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts. To learn how business travel drives lasting business growth, gbta.org