The Oct. 25 meeting of the Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee was canceled because it did not comply with a new Treasury Department policy addressing conference spending.

Under the Oct. 11 Treasury Department directive, all requests for conference spending must be cleared with the deputy Treasury secretary or designee “not later than 30 days in advance of the conference.”

The current deputy Treasury secretary is Neal S. Wolin.

The Treasury Department directive from Dan Tangherlini, assistant secretary for management and chief financial officer, was issued after the CCAC meeting was scheduled.

Tom Jurkowsky, director of the U.S. Mint’s Office of Public Affairs, said Oct. 25 that the Mint will be adhering to the directive. The Mint coordinates CCAC meetings.

Jurkowsky said that it is possible the Mint could receive blanket approval for scheduling future CCAC meetings without the 30-day pre-approval.

Funding to finance the CCAC and its related activities and expenses is derived from the Public Enterprise Fund, established in 1996 (Public Law 104-52) “to account for all revenues and expenses related to production and sale of numismatic products and circulating coinage and protection activities.” The CCAC’s expenses were designated to come from the PEF upon the CCAC’s creation in 2003. The CCAC was established under provisions of the American 5-Cent Coin Design Continuity Act of 2003.

The Oct. 11 directive was issued pursuant to a Sept. 21 memorandum focused on eliminating excess conference spending and promoting efficiency in government. The memorandum was sent to the heads of all executive departments and agencies, not just the Treasury Department, from Jacob J. Lew, director of the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget.

Lew’s memo was issued subsequent to a June 13 executive order from President Obama to deliver an efficient, effective and accountable government under the president’s Campaign to Cut Waste.

Vice President Joe Biden met with executive department heads the week ending Sept. 16 to discuss the president’s Campaign to Cut Waste and address solutions.

Designs to be reviewed

At the Oct. 25 meeting that was canceled, CCAC members were to have been presented for their review the 79 proposed designs for the 2013 America the Beautiful quarter dollars and the 2012 First Spouse half-ounce gold $10 coins that the Commission of Fine Arts considered at its Oct. 20 meeting.

The next CCAC meeting has been scheduled for Nov. 29.

The majority of the CCAC meetings held thus far since the committee’s establishment have been conducted at U.S. Mint headquarters in Washington, D.C. Of those meeting held in other venues, some have been held in conjunction with coin conventions, the American Numismatic Association Summer Seminar in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point or conducted by teleconferencing. Some members have participated in meetings by teleconferencing, regardless of the meeting’s location.

CCAC members are volunteers who receive no compensation beyond travel reimbursement. Members of the 11-member CCAC are appointed by the Treasury secretary, with four members recommended by congressional leadership, and the remaining seven members with numismatic, curatorial, or history credentials or representing the public at large. ¦