American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) President and CEO Chip Rogers released the below statement after Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced S.2160, the “Restored, Equitable, Coronavirus Adjusted Lodging (RECAL) Act,” a bipartisan bill that would require the General Services Administration (GSA) to calculate federal per diem rates for fiscal years 2022 and 2023 using data from 2018 and 2019, prior to the pandemic wiping out 10 years of job growth in the hotel industry.
“Government travel supports tens of thousands of hotel jobs and billions in travel spending across the country and is critical to the hotel industry’s recovery, which is still suffering the negative economic impacts of COVID-19. As a result of pandemic-related shutdowns, capacity restrictions, and safety precautions, calculating per diem rates using 2020 data would lead to an artificially low rate that would only exacerbate the economic crisis facing hoteliers. This commonsense bill would ensure a fair rate calculation by directing the General Services Administration to base per diem rates on data from 2018 and 2019, prior to the pandemic’s devastating impact on travel. We commend Sens. Moran and Kaine for introducing this critical legislation and urge Congress to move swiftly to pass it into law.”
