VA secretary says agency has no Vegas travel restrictions

By Lisa Mascaro

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 | 11:50 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Veterans’ Administration Secretary has no qualms about traveling to Las Vegas for business.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that his department has no restrictions on business travel to Vegas – in fact, the secretary was just in town last month to speak at a veterans’ event.

The secretary’s letter released today comes after Reid wrote to every cabinet secretary requesting that they not discriminate against Nevada when planning business travel.

Work travel to Las Vegas has plummeted during the recession, harming the Southern Nevada economy that is heavily dependent on visitor volume.

Some have suggested President Barack Obama didn’t help matters when he said that companies taking government bailout funds shouldn’t go to Vegas on the taxpayers’ dime.

Several companies pulled the plug on planned events in Vegas.

Reid subsequently learned that policies had been in place since the Bush administration against travel to Vegas and other resort-like cities.

Shinseki wrote that the department's current policies “require that employees, who travel or sponsor VA-sponsored conferences for the purposes of work, exercise the same care in incurring expenses that a prudent person would if traveling on personal business.”