Now’s no time for reticence, lawmakers!

On Wednesday, Rep. Shelley Berkley announced she’d introduce a bill to prohibit the federal government from “blacklisting” Las Vegas and Reno for conferences. The bill comes in response to criticism of the General Services Administration for blowing $823,000 on a lavish conference held at the M Resort in 2010.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller announced shortly thereafter that he’d introduce a bill in the Senate to that effect.

What pikers! It’s a recession, people. Anybody who’s really concerned about saving Nevada jobs and fixing our recession-plagued economy would be introducing bills to require government agencies to hold conferences in Nevada!

That’s right: We want every single federal agency to cycle through Sin City at least once every three years. We’re not going to rest until at least one-third of the 2.65 million executive branch employees are in somebody’s slot club!

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority doesn’t count the precise number of federal agency conventions held in Las Vegas every year, but it’s just a small percentage of the nearly 19,000 events that took place last year. But that’s still business Las Vegas wants, says Vince Alberta, spokesman for the authority.

“As the No. 1 convention and trade show destination, we don’t want to give up any market share,” Alberta said.

And that’s especially true since federal conference spending runs at least $500 million per year! That means the GSA’s October confab wasn’t even two-tenths of 1 percent of the total spending. Let’s go, Berkley and Heller! Get Reps. Mark Amodei and Joe Heck on the job, too. And somebody call U.S. Sen. Harry Reid – he’s the guy who originally called out the Bush administration for its ban on travel to resort destinations and got President Barack Obama’s administration to say Las Vegas and Reno aren’t off limits.

But now – thanks to some GSA hijinks – people in Congress are all over our case. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for example, is demanding to know how many conferences have taken place in Las Vegas, as if that’s why the GSA went crazy. Hey, Rand: We’re not the only place where you can host bacchanals, just the best. Don’t blame us if nobody wants to go to Lexington, Campbellsville or Winchester.

And that’s another thing: Most everybody wants to come to Las Vegas. It’s not just that it’s easy to get a flight, find a suitable convention center or get around town, it’s that the city itself is much cheaper than other places. Hotel room rates range from $244 per night in New York City to $123 per night in Los Angeles and Long Beach, but we’re only $105 per night. So you can meet and save the taxpayers money.

Why meet at all? Alberta notes, correctly, that private businesses come to Las Vegas again and again for the face-to-face meetings that facilitate commerce in industries ranging from digital media (Consumer Electronics Show) to broadcasting (National Association of Broadcasters) to clothing (the Men’s Apparel Guild in California) to movies (Cinema Con). And those are just the big ones; three-quarters of all meetings draw crowds of 500 or fewer people, Alberta said. If Tony Hsieh designs the Zappos building to facilitate “serendipitous interactions,” conferences that accomplish the same thing might be useful for others as well.

Now, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn wants to cut conference spending by 20 percent, and cap the budget for individual conferences at $500,000. Hey, Las Vegas can work with that!

So let’s get to work on the Sin City Stimulus Bill, Nevada congressional delegation. Daddy needs a new sports arena.

 

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.