Question on Lobbying and Use of Appropriated Funds

GAO was asked to comment on a letter and attachments sent to Congress by the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity containing summaries of a Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee report, which proposes Economic Opportunity Act Amendments for 1967. Congress pointed out that the letter was unsolicited, and asked whether appropriated monies were used in sending the correspondence, and if so, whether this violated the prohibition against lobbying with appropriated funds.

GAO found that appropriated funds were used to prepare and send the correspondence. However, with respect to whether those letter constitute violations of law, GAO found that since the statute contains fine and indiscriminate provisions which may be enforced only through judicial criminal proceedings, it is not within GAO's jurisdiction to determine the statute's applicability in any given circumstances.