For those Universities who utilize the Federal per diem rates for your travelers, I have a question regarding calculations on the first and last day of travel. First and last day start at 75% of the full day's M&IE Rate and then if meals are provided, you deduct the entire meal cost from the decreased M&IE rate. I'm good with all of this but my question is how much do your traveler's receive if all meals are excluded and they're only receiving the incidental rate for that day? For ease of discussion, we'll use the standard incidental rate for CONUS travel of $5. If all meals are excluded, do travelers receive $5 or $3.75 ($5 * 75%)? The Federal Travel Regulation says that "the total amount of deductions made will not cause you to receive less than the amount allowed for incidental expenses" but it does not specify if that's the full incidental rate or 75% of it.

Here's the link to the FTR for reference: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-41/subtitle-F/chapter-301/subchapter-B/part-301-11/subpart-A/section-301-11.18