The Use of Funds to Furnish Christmas Decorations for Official Residences and Government Offices Abroad

This decision is in response to a memorandum dated January 17, 1977, requesting our views concerning the propriety of the use of funds from the State Department Salaries and Expenses appropriation and the United States Information Agency (USIA) appropriation to furnish Christmas decorations for official residences and Government offices abroad. Specifically, it was asked whether our decision prohibiting such expenditures from an appropriation for necessary expenses of the Bureau of Customs would apply to expenditures from the appropriations cited. Accordingly, unless it can be shown that, in the cases of the State Department and USIA, the purchase of Christmas trees and decorations for official residences and offices abroad is directly connected with the general purposes for which funds are appropriated to those agencies, we are aware of no basis for not applying the rule of 52 Comp. Gen. 504 to those purchases.