Principles of Federal Appropriations Law - US Government ...

Chapter 4
Availability of Appropriations: Purpose
Interior restriction. One aspect of this decision involved an NEA official’s
remarks at an arts conference. In response to a question from the audience
concerning what the audience could do to support NEA, the official
responded that they could contact their congressional representatives.
GAO’s investigation concluded that there was no intent to promote. The
official’s response was incidental to her presentation and not part of any
plan to generate action on the part of her audience. The official’s answer
was viewed as more of a civics lesson, informational in nature, rather than
an exhortation to contact Congress.
(9) Dissemination of political or misleading information
Generally speaking, funds appropriated to carry out a particular program
would not be available for political purposes, that is, for a propaganda
effort designed to aid a political party or candidate. See B-147578, Nov. 8,
1962. If for no other reason, such an expenditure would be improper as a
use of funds for other than their intended purpose in violation of 31 U.S.C.
§ 1301(a). However, the publicity and propaganda statute does not provide
adequate guidelines to distinguish between legitimate and purely political
activities and is therefore applicable to “political” activities only to the
extent that the activities would otherwise constitute a violation. See
B-130961, Oct. 26, 1972.
In more general terms, it is always difficult to find that conduct is so purely
political as to constitute a purpose violation. As stated in B-144323, Nov. 4,
1960:
“[The question is] whether in any particular case a speech or
a release by a cabinet officer can be said to be so completely
devoid of any connection with official functions or so
political in nature that it is not in furtherance of the purpose
for which Government funds were appropriated, thereby
making the use of such funds …unauthorized. This is
extremely difficult to determine in most cases as the lines
separating the nonpolitical from the political cannot be
precisely drawn.
“…As a practical matter, even if we were to conclude that
the use of appropriated funds for any given speech or its
release was unauthorized, the amount involved would be
small, and difficult to ascertain; and the results of any
corrective action might well be more technical than real.”
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