U.S. Government Researchers Barred from Scientific Conferences

Is this really necessary??? U.S. Government Researchers Barred from Scientific Conferences: “It is frustrating, it is embarrassing,” Government researchers are barred from their own labs during the shutdown, and they cannot travel to conferences
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-government-researchers&WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook