Approval to Exceed GSA Lodging for 2017 Fall AGU meeting.

This letter from SARA is to issue a waiver for grantees allowing them to be reimbursed out of their grants for their actual lodging, although it's expected to be above per diem. Note, I have specified grants (including cooperative agreements). This may also apply to those traveling on NASA contracts, but they should communicate with their contracting officers.

The December 2017 AGU Fall Meeting is in New Orleans, Louisiana. The GSA allowed daily lodging expense for New Orleans will be $148, almost certainly not be adequate for DPS in 2017, based on the costs of hotels listed at https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2017/housing/. The average cost of those hotels is ~$193.

Grantee travelers may need a waiver to cover lodging in excess of the GSA value, depending on the travel policy of your organization. This waiver does not supersede the travel policy of your institution if it is more restrictive.

By the power invested in me by the NSSC to issue approval of the actual lodging costs for a conference in "bulk" instead of individual approvals, I hereby affirm that for the December 2017 AGU Fall Meeting is in New Orleans, Louisiana NASA SMD grants may be charged up to ~$193 plus tax per night, consistent with the average actual costs of the hotels listed on the AGU fall meeting housing page, even though this exceeds the $148 allotted for lodging by GSA for New Orleans, Louisiana for December 2017.

- Max Bernstein, SMD lead for research