---
kind: "section"
citation: "5 U.S.C. § 5946"
title: "5"
title_heading: "Government Organization and Employees"
number: "5946"
heading: "Membership fees; expenses of attendance at meetings; limitations"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/5/5946"
units:
  - "Part III — Employees"
  - "Subpart D — Pay and Allowances"
  - "Chapter 59 — Allowances"
  - "Subchapter IV — Miscellaneous Allowances"
---

# §5946. Membership fees; expenses of attendance at meetings; limitations


Except as authorized by a specific appropriation, by express terms in a general appropriation, or by sections [4109](/usc/5/4109.md) and [4110](/usc/5/4110.md) of this title, appropriated [funds](/usc/5/8401.md?p=6) may not be used for payment of—

- (1) membership fees or [dues](/usc/5/7103.md?p=a-5) of an [employee](/usc/5/4701.md?p=a-2) as defined by [section 2105 of this title](/usc/5/2105.md) or an individual employed by the [government](/usc/5/4101.md?p=3) of the District of Columbia in a society or association; or
- (2) expenses of attendance of an individual at meetings or conventions of [members](/usc/5/8401.md?p=20) of a society or association.

This section does not prevent the use of appropriations for the [Department](/usc/5/10101.md?p=4) of Agriculture for expenses incident to the delivery of lectures, the giving of instructions, or the acquiring of information at meetings by its [employees](/usc/5/4701.md?p=a-2) on subjects relating to the authorized work of the [Department](/usc/5/10101.md?p=4).


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 89–554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 514.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Derivation | U.S. Code | Revised Statutes and<br>Statutes at Large |
|  | 5 U.S.C. 83. | June 26, 1912, ch. 182, § 8, 37 Stat. 184.<br>Mar. 4, 1913, ch. 145 (3d full par. on p. 854), 37 Stat. 854. |

The words “or by sections 4109 and 4110 of this title” are added on authority of former sections 2309 and 2318(b), which are carried into sections 4109 and 4110, respectively.

In the last sentence, the words “This section does not” are substituted for “That nothing contained in the Act making appropriations to provide for the expenses of the Government of the District of Columbia for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and for other purposes, approved June twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and twelve, shall be so construed as to” appearing in the Act of Mar. 4, 1913, 37 Stat. 854.

Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.