Policy for Travel and Reimbursement

The APSA Congressional Fellowship Program (CFP) gladly reimburses fellowship applicants for expenses incurred while traveling to and from interviews. To facilitate your travel arrangements and to give you an idea of what we ordinarily reimburse in the way of expenses, we offer the following guidelines.

TRANSPORTATION

• Airplane or Train Tickets. For candidates who prefer to make their own travel arrangements, APSA will reimburse you for your roundtrip plane or train ticket. We encourage you to seek the lowest fares possible. Alternately, if you prefer to have APSA make travel arrangements for you, please contact us immediately with your date and time restrictions. We will do our best to accommodate them.

• Driving. Auto travel will be reimbursed at the rate of $50.5 per mile, up to an equivalent of the lowest fare available by commercial carrier. APSA also reimburses gas and tolls, so please make sure to retain all receipts.

• Transportation to Airport. We will also reimburse transportation to and from an airport or train station. For individuals flying in and out of Washington National airport (DCA), APSA will cover the costs of a taxi to APSA, your hotel or your DC residence. For individuals flying in and out of Washington Dulles (IAD) or Baltimore-Washington (BWI), APSA will cover the costs of a shuttle only. We also cannot pay for the rental of a car. Please be sure to request a receipt from your taxi or shuttle driver.

• Hotel Room. APSA must pre-approve all hotel accommodations. In the case of interviews, we will reserve a hotel room close to the APSA offices for the night. While the cost of your room will be paid by CFP directly (interviews) or reimbursed (district trips), you will be responsible for any further charges incurred during your stay. Such charges may include, but are not necessarily limited to, telephone calls, room service, mini bar access, dry cleaning, shoe shines, and pay-per-view movies.

• Additional Nights. It is CFP policy to pay for one night's accommodation for the interview. However, we will be happy to pay for two nights if:
  this results in airfare savings that are greater than the cost of another night in the hotel, plus your meals
  for that day; or
  
  the combination of your interview time and your travel distance necessitates an additional night's stay.

  Our travel agency is aware of this policy and will advise you if any such airfare savings are available. Please let us know well in advance if you think two nights' lodging is warranted.

  In the case of district trips, APSA reimburses up to $750 for a visit of no longer than five days.

• Meals. Please use your best judgment in charging meals to CFP. On occasion we have been asked for guidelines for expenses, and have responded that a reasonable limit is $25.00 for dinner, $15.00 for lunch, and $8.00 for breakfast.