I'm not a government employee, but I live near Washington DC. Here's why the awards themselves will probably never be taxed directly: for the same reason that Washington National Airport just got a massive new terminal instead of being torn down and retired with its antiquated 7000 foot waterlocked main runway. In both cases, Congressmen like it. DCA is 10 minutes from the Hill, and the airlines and/or the biz jets owned by the special interests take your representative wherever he/she wants to go in a jiffy. And while normal government employees are not supposed to use miles earned while travelling for the government for personal use, guess which 535 people are exempt from that rule! No, they'll never tax the miles directly, because they'd be taxing themselves, and that's a simply not done.