Senate subcommittee mandates small business participation in eTravel

A Senate Appropriations subcommittee supported the continued development of the General Services Administration's eTravel Service Tuesday by approving language to guarantee that a portion of the project's contracts go to small travel agencies.

The fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill (H.R. 3058), passed by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday, requires that no less than 23 percent of all contracted dollars for eTravel go to small businesses. The panel's move veers from a decision last week by House lawmakers to cut funding for the program.

The full Senate Appropriations Committee will consider the bill Thursday afternoon. If no changes are made to sections related to eTravel, a conference committee from both chambers will work out the discrepancies.

"The bill does support the continued development of eTravel," a Senate Appropriations Committee spokeswoman said in a statement. "It is projected to save $450 million over 10 years for [the] federal government."

The House nixed funding for eTravel because a group of lawmakers believed that the program would prevent small travel agencies from doing business with the government. Agencies subject to the Federal Travel Regulation were required by GSA to choose a pre-approved vendor for eTravel, a move that some small travel agencies said eliminated their business opportunities.

Patricia Stout, owner of Alamo Travel in San Antonio, Texas, said that the language in the Senate bill is not enough.

"That language is very weak," the small business owner said. "The 23 percent has been there forever, and that really doesn't have that much teeth if they put it like that."

Stout plans to send a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee asking them to require GSA to "create substantial and significant contracting opportunities under the eTravel program."

Paula Wild, president and owner of Manassas Travel, a small travel agency in Salt Lake City, said the Senate's version is good news and that shutting down the eTravel system would be "going backwards."

"The government is passing the buck off to the large mega agencies," Wild said regarding GSA's decision when designing the project not to require small business contracting. "They need to mandate the use of small business in their plans … the powers that be at GSA made that happen and they can also make it go away."