At a Senate hearing on government conference and travel spending this past week, top administration officials and three inspectors general described "a new culture of restraint" in federal spending on events, triggered by both bad publicity and sharp spending cuts, the Washington Post has reported.

In the wake of the Internal Revenue Service and the General Services Administration conference scandals, Washington has unveiled safeguards to prevent abuses--but some of these were deemed restrictive by industry professionals. At PCMA's Convening Leaders conference, David Peckinpaugh, president of Maritz Travel and co-chair of the recently launched Meetings Mean Business coalition, noted the general spending limit of $500,000 for government conferences, calling it "onerous." The cost of a conference, he said, depends on its size and the number of attendees. Under these restrictions, he added, some federal events were canceled.

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