House Panel Backs Travel Spending Limits

DENVER (AP) -- A proposal to limit travel spending by state-chartered agencies is advancing at the Capitol.

The House State, Veterans & Military Affairs committee voted Thursday to back the bill.

The new guidelines would limit workers to spending twice the daily limits allowed by the IRS. That's $680 a day for food and lodging in New York and $300 in Colorado Springs.

Public universities would be exempt so they can go to bowl games and recruit doctors.

Democratic Rep. Sal Pace said the bill is aimed at the workers' compensation insurer Pinnacol Assurance, which spent thousands of dollars on a golf outing for executives.

The bill now goes to the full House for debate.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)