Alleged Grass Roots Lobbying by a CSA Recipient

A community action agency which received funds from the Community Services Administration (CSA) prepared and made a mass mailing which alleged that the Reagan Administration was attempting to eliminate CSA. Recipients of the letter were asked to contact their congressmen to urge support for CSA in order to prevent its abolition. If Federal funds were used in the preparation or carrying out of the mass mailing, it constituted an illegal expenditure for what amounts to grass roots lobbying by the recipient. GAO defines grass roots lobbying as an indirect attempt to influence pending legislation by urging members of the public to contact legislators to express support of or opposition to the legislation or to request them to vote in a particular manner. There are two separate restrictions applicable to CSA appropriations which prohibit the use of Federal funds for lobbying activities: (1) Federal agencies, departments, and corporations may not expend appropriated funds for publicity and propaganda aimed at the public and designed to support or defeat legislation pending before Congress, and grant or contract recipients may not use Federal funds for salaries or expenses of employees or agents while they are engaging in any activity designed to influence pending legislation or appropriations; and (2) use of any appropriation contained in that specific act or any other act is prohibited. GAO found no evidence in the legislative history or the restriction itself that Congress intended to exempt CSA from its coverage. In regard to the second prohibition, GAO has held that the prohibition applies primarily to expenditures involving grass roots lobbying. Thus GAO held that CSA should investigate the mass mailing of lobbying material and determine if any Federal funds were utilized either directly or indirectly. If Federal funds were utilized, CSA should take action to recover such illegal expenditures.