Forest Service Violations of Section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations, B-281637, May 14, 1999

B-281637 May 14, 1999 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights We have completed our review of those documents and have determined that activities described in them constitute violations of section 303. (2) a campaign to promote public support for a budget proposal seeking to change the way certain payments to states from Forest Service revenues are calculated. We have limited our opinion to these violations. We are recommending that the Secretary develop guidelines on lobbying under section 303 and educate his employees concerning them. SECTION 303 OF THE 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act Section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act is one of a long line of restrictions on the use of appropriated funds by federal officials for lobbying. View Decision Subject: Forest Service Violations of Section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act File: B-281637 Date: May 14, 1999 The Honorable Don Young Chairman, Committee on Resources House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: In your letter dated November 24, 1998 written jointly with the Honorable Frank H. Murkowski, you requested our opinion on whether the United States Forest Service engaged in lobbying in violation of federal law. In particular, you asked whether actions taken by employees of the Forest Service to implement a Communication Plan for the Forest Service Natural Resource Agenda violated section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act, which prohibited the expenditure of funds for certain lobbying activities undertaken by covered federal officials. /1/ In addition to your letter, you provided us with approximately 1500 documents you had received from the Forest Service in response to your request for documents concerning the Agenda and the Communication Plan. We have completed our review of those documents and have determined that activities described in them constitute violations of section 303. Specifically, these activities included (1) urging members of the public during a meeting to contact Congress in support of road funding initiatives in legislation and in the budget, and (2) a campaign to promote public support for a budget proposal seeking to change the way certain payments to states from Forest Service revenues are calculated. Because the documents themselves establish at least two violations, and in view of the time and resources that would be required to examine each action of every employee pursuant to the Communication Plan, we have limited our opinion to these violations. As discussed below, we are recommending that the Secretary develop guidelines on lobbying under section 303 and educate his employees concerning them. SECTION 303 OF THE 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act Section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act is one of a long line of restrictions on the use of appropriated funds by federal officials for lobbying, or attempting to influence legislators. /2/ These restrictions began with the enactment of a criminal prohibition in 1919Third Deficiency Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1919, ch. 6, Sec. 6, 41 Stat. 68 (1919) (codified on June 25, 1948 at 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1913). and continued with various appropriations restrictions imposed from time to time from the 1950's to the present on individual federal agencies and on the government as a whole.United States General Accounting Office, supra note 2, at 4-156 to 4-179. Generally speaking, these laws have been interpreted not to prohibit direct contact with legislators by executive branch officials, but instead to prohibit a variety of other federal agency lobbying activities. Id. Section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act provided: No part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall be available for any activity or the publication or distribution of literature that in any way tends to promote public support or opposition to any legislative proposal on which congressional action is not complete. A nearly identical version of this restriction was first enacted in 1977 /6/ and has been in every Interior Department appropriations law since. The Senate Appropriations Committee that authored what is now section 303 described the concerns that motivated its inclusion: The Committee is disturbed to learn of certain public information activities being conducted by the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service that tend to promote pending legislative proposals to set aside certain areas in Alaska for national parks, wildlife refuges, national forest and other withdrawals. Colorful brochures printed and actively distributed by these agencies extol the benefits of such proposals and as a result, tend to promote certain legislative goals of these agencies.