Commerce Department Probed for Lavish Conference

A third federal agency is being probed for allegedly spending millions at a conference, according to the Heritage Foundation.

The inspector general of the Commerce Department is investigating allegations by a whistleblower that an obscure agency within the department spent millions of dollars on a conference near Disney World in Florida.

The Commerce Department is the third federal agency to face allegations of wasteful spending at conferences. The General Services Administration is being probed for a lavish conference in Las Vegas, among other events, and the Veterans Administration has come under fire for lavish events for their employees.

The agency within the department called the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which hosted the conferences, disputes the whistleblower report, saying that it has spent anywhere from $480,000 to $670,000 on its annual conferences since 2006, but not the $3 million to $5 million alleged, according to the Heritage Foundation blog.