Principles of Federal Appropriations Law - US Government ...

Chapter 4
Availability of Appropriations: Purpose
permissible preventive health services. Based on the revised regulations, an
agency may now use appropriated funds to provide access to a private
fitness center’s exercise facilities, although both GAO and OPM caution
that expenditures of this type should be carefully monitored and should be
undertaken only where all other resources have been considered and
rejected. 70 Comp. Gen. 190 (1991). However, appropriated funds are not
authorized for payment of: (1) employees’ membership fees to a contracted
private fitness center in advance of employees’ use of facilities (B-288013,
Dec. 11, 2001); or (2) registration fees for employee members of an
agency’s on-site fitness center to participate in local competitive fitness or
sports activities. Participation in such events is generally a personal
activity, not an essential part of a government-sponsored preventive health
program. 73 Comp. Gen. 169 (1994).
Medical treatment not within the scope of 5 U.S.C. § 7901 remains subject
to the general rule expressed in cases such as 22 Comp. Gen. 32. Thus, the
cost of an ambulance called by an agency medical officer to take an
employee to a hospital could not be paid from appropriated funds.
B-160272, Nov. 14, 1966. (This is the kind of expense that can be covered by
employee health insurance plans.) In another case, GAO rejected the
contention that medical expenses are automatically “necessary expenses,”
and concluded that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) appropriations were not
available to reimburse the State Department for medical services provided
to IRS overseas employees and their dependents under the Foreign Service
Act of 1946. 53 Comp. Gen. 230 (1973). The decision noted that several
other agencies had received specific statutory authority to participate in
the program.
A review of the decisions involving medical examinations will further
illustrate the relationship of 5 U.S.C. § 7901 to the decisional rules. Prior to
the enactment of section 7901, a pre-employment physical examination, the
purpose of which was to determine an applicant’s eligibility for a federal
job, was the applicant’s responsibility and was not chargeable to
appropriated funds. 22 Comp. Gen. 243 (1942).
Applying the “primary benefit of the government” standard, however, the
Comptroller General found post-employment examinations permissible in
certain situations. Thus, in 22 Comp. Gen. 32 (1942), GAO told the Army
that it could use its appropriations to provide periodic physical
examinations to detect arsenic poisoning in civilian workers in a chemical
warfare laboratory. The decision noted that instances of arsenic poisoning
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