Public Law 77-607 as Written, continued [1]
Unless otherwise expressly provided by law, no officer of the services mentioned in the title of this Act shall be allowed or paid any sum in excess of expenses actually incurred for subsistence while traveling on duty away from his designated post of duty, nor any sum for such expenses actually incurred in excess of $7 per day. The heads of the executive departments concerned are authorized to prescribe per diem rates of allowance, not exceeding $6, in lieu of subsistence to officers traveling on official business and away from their designated posts of duty: Provided, That for travel by air under competent orders on duty without troops, under regulations to be prescribed respectively by the heads of the departments concerned, members (including officers, warrant officers, contract surgeons, enlisted men, aviation cadets, and members of the Nurse Corps) of the services mentioned in the title of this Act, and of the legally constituted Reserves of said services while on active duty, and of the National Guard while in Federal service, or while participating in exercises, or performing duties under sections 92, 94, 97, or 99 of the National Defense Act, shall, in lieu of mileage or other travel allowances, be allowed and paid their actual and necessary traveling expenses not to exceed $8 per day, or, in lieu thereof, per diem allowances at rates not to exceed $6 per day.
Travel by personnel of the services mentioned in the title of this Act, including the Reserve components thereof and the National Guard while on active duty in the Federal service, on commercial aircraft, domestic or foreign, including travel between airports and centers of population or posts of duty when incidental to travel on commercial aircraft, shall be allowed at public expense when authorized or approved by competent authority, and transportation requests for such travel may be issued upon such authorizations. Such expense shall be allowed without regard to comparative costs of transportation by aircraft with other modes of transportation.
Individuals belonging to any of the services mentioned in the title of this Act, including the National Guard and the Reserves of such services, traveling under competent orders which entitle them to transportation or transportation and subsistence as distinguished from mileage, who, under regulations prescribed by the head of the department concerned, travel by privately owned conveyance shall be entitled, in lieu of transportation by the shortest usually traveled route now authorized by law to be furnished in kind, to a money allowance at the rate of 3 cents per mile for the same distance: Provided, That this provision shall not apply to any person entitled to traveling expenses under the Subsistence Expense Act of 1926.
When any officer, warrant officer, or enlisted man above the fourth grade, having dependents as defined in section 4 hereof, is ordered to make a permanent change of station, the United States shall furnish transportation in kind from funds appropriated for the transportation of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the Public Health Service to his new station for such dependents: Provided, That for persons in the naval service the term "permanent station" as used in this section shall be interpreted to mean a shore station or the home yard or home port of the vessel to which the person concerned may be ordered; and a duly authorized change in home yard or home port of such vessel shall be deemed a change of station: Provided further, That if the cost of such transportation exceeds that for transportation from the old to the new station, the excess cost shall be paid to the United States by the officer, warrant officer, or enlisted man concerned: Provided further, That transportation supplied the dependents of such officer, warrant officer, or enlisted man, to or from stations beyond the continental limits of the United States, shall not be other than by Government transport, if such transportation is available as may be determined by the head of the department concerned: Provided further, That the personnel of all the services mentioned in the title of this Act shall have the benefit of all existing laws applying to the Army and Marine Corps for the transportation of household effects: And provided further, That in lieu of transportation in kind authorized by this section for dependents, the President may authorize the payment in money of amounts equal to such commercial transportation costs for the whole or such part of the travel for which transportation in kind is not furnished when such travel shall have been completed.
The words "permanent change of station" as used in this section shall include the change from home to first station and from last station to home when ordered to active duty other than training duty, of any officer, warrant officer, nurse, or enlisted man of any of the services mentioned in the title of this Act, including retired personnel and members of the Reserve components thereof, in a grade for which the transportation of dependents is authorized at Government expense, and the change from last station to home in connection with retirement, relief from active duty, or transfer to a Reserve component.
Personnel of any of the services mentioned in the title of this Act performing travel on Government-owned vessels for which no transportation fare is charged shall be entitled only to reimbursement of actual and necessary expenses incurred.
The head of the department concerned may determine what shall constitute a travel status and travel without troops within the meaning of the laws governing the payment of mileage or other travel expenses.
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