Chicago Association for Research and Education in Science
PAYMENT OF LICENSES, PERSONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS POLICY

CARES will not pay for personal memberships. Institutional memberships are allowable when related to its research or education mission.

CARES will pay for subscriptions which are appropriate and supportive of its mission to support VA research and education. If requested by the investigator, subscriptions may specify that the publication be mailed to the investigator’s home address.

In those instances in which an investigator must belong to an organization in order to gain access to the organization’s publications and, such organization is related to the research or education mission of the organization, an effort will be made to determine the portion of membership dues which are attributable to the publication; this portion can be paid by CARES.

There may be instances where the publication cost can not be broken out from the membership cost and the only way to access a publication is through membership in an organization and where the publication is important and directly related to the research and education mission of the agency and the responsibilities of the investigator. Under such circumstances, it is the responsibility of the Executive Director to make a determination as to whether such expenditure is justified.

CARES will not pay for personal licensure.

Background
5 USC 5946 prohibits the use of appropriated funds to pay a federal employee’s membership fees in any organization unless the payment is authorized by a specific appropriation or express terms in a general appropriation, or the membership is part of an employee training program authorized by 5 USC 4109 and 4110.

Various OGC and GAO legal opinions hold that appropriated funds may be used to pay for an agency’s membership in a private organization so long as the primary benefit of the membership accrues to the agency rather than its employees, and the agency determines that its membership in a particular organization is necessary to carry out its statutory functions.

OMB Circular A-122. Selected items of cost: #30. Memberships, subscriptions, and professional activity costs.

1. Costs of the organization’s membership in business, technical, and professional organizations are allowable.
2. Costs of the organization’s subscriptions to business, professional and technical periodicals are allowable.
3. Costs of meetings and conferences, when the primary purpose is the dissemination of technical information, are allowable. This includes costs of meals, transportation, rental of facilities, and other items incidental to such meetings or conferences.
4. Costs of membership in any civic or community organization are allowable with prior approval by federal cognizant agency.
5. Costs of membership in any country club or social or dining club or organization are unallowable.

NIH Grants Policy Statement (2003) section on selected items of cost (page 91):

Dues or Membership Fee – Allowable as an F&A cost for organizational membership in business, professional or technical organizations or societies.
Payment of dues or membership fees for an individual’s membership in a professional or technical organization is allowable as a fringe benefit or an employee development cost, if paid according to an established organizational policy consistently applied regardless of the source of funds.

Note: Policy refers to employees. Most NPC PIs are not NPC employees.

Handbook 1200.17. 7.e. Professional Memberships. Corporation funds may be used to pay for corporate membership in professional organizations. Note: Section f. Subscriptions provides that “Corporation funds may be used to pay for publications that facilitate the interests of VA’s research and education missions.”

Federal Ethics Standards prohibit acceptance of gifts (anything of monetary value) unless they cost less than $20 or fall into one of the other exceptions in 5 USC 2635.204. If an individual membership is considered a gift under the ethics regulations, a federal employee could not accept it (unless it cost less than $20) even though it would appear to be an appropriate, research related NPC expense. This may be the basis for the HJF prohibition.

Internal Revenue Service. The IRS allows a business or personal tax deduction for work related memberships in professional organizations (IRS Publications 529 and 15-B). Professional memberships may be provided to employees as fringe benefits and generally the value is not taxable to the employee and is not reported on Form W-2.

Informal OGC Guidance. In the mid 1990s, NAVREF reached an informal, verbal understanding with now-retired VA attorney Audley Hendricks that NPCs could pay for individual professional subscriptions. This recognized that it was impractical for an entire facility to share one subscription. Should a membership be necessary in order to obtain a subscription, the NPC could pay for the portion of the membership fee attributable to the subscription.