Section 32A Committees, sub-committees and special commissions; travel; expenses - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 32A. No special commission, no special or standing committee of the general court or of either branch thereof, and no sub-committee of any such commission or committee shall travel either within or without the commonwealth except by a vote of a majority of the total membership of such commission or committee, nor until the written approval of the presiding officers of both branches of the general court or of the presiding officer of the appropriate branch has been received. Such written approval shall specify the purpose of the trip, the places to be visited, the time within which such travel is to be completed, the maximum amount of money which may be expended and the names of all members or other persons authorized to travel. The comptroller shall not advance any money or reimburse any person for such travel unless such approval has been filed with him before such travel commences.

Whenever any such commission, committee or sub-committee travels, the sergeant-at-arms shall make all necessary provisions for its transportation and hotel accommodations, and shall advance to each individual member thereof and to each general court officer, secretary, consultant or technical assistant thereof so traveling, a sum sufficient to cover such estimated expense as they may incur other than for such transportation and hotel accommodations.

Each member of such a commission, committee or sub-committee and every other person duly authorized to travel with said committee shall forthwith, upon his return, file with the sergeant-at-arms a certificate containing an itemized account of all expenditures so incurred by him approved by the signatures of the chairman of such commission or committee and of the presiding officers or officer as the case may be. Such accounts shall thereupon be transmitted forthwith to the comptroller.

If within ten days after the completion date given in the written request for travel, the comptroller receives no account of the expenditures incurred while so traveling, he shall forthwith notify in writing the presiding officer or officers whose signature or signatures are affixed to the written approval. It shall be the responsibility of the presiding officers or officer to see to it that the required accounting is filed with the comptroller forthwith.

At the close of each fiscal year, the comptroller shall include in his annual report a separate schedule listing each cash advance made to a recess commission or legislative committee during the year, together with a summary showing for each trip the places visited, the time spent in traveling and at each place visited, the names of those who traveled, and the amount spent for transportation, hotels, meals and sundry expenses.

Expenses of members of special commissions, special or standing committees of the general court or of either branch thereof whether or not sitting in recess, sub-committees thereof, and of every other person duly authorized to travel with such commissions, committees, or sub-committees, while traveling shall not exceed, for meals, not to exceed three meals a day, the following amounts per person, including tips: Breakfast, two dollars, lunch (midday meal), three dollars, supper (evening meal), five dollars. The maximums for lunch and supper may be reversed when both of said meals are taken on the same day. Where the charge for hotel accommodations includes meals, or where the price of air or steamship passage includes meals, such meals shall not be reimbursable.