Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate how much federal agencies are spending on public relations, after having gotten no response to that question from the Obama administration.
The Senate Budget Committee chairman said Wednesday that, at his request, the GAO will investigate how much agencies are spending on PR, a subject that Enzi says remains a mystery to Congress.
Enzi asked White House Office of Management and Budget director Shaun Donovan for similar information four months ago, but didn’t receive an answer.
As a result, Enzi wrote a letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro for a rundown on what agencies are spending on media relations, and what they are getting out of that spending. He said spending on PR is “largely unknown,” but is also “increasing pressures on limited federal resources.”
A part of the government’s PR budget is known. The Congressional Research Service estimated in 2014 that Uncle Sam spent $892.5 million on contracts for advertising services.
But internal federal resources dedicated to PR remain unknown.
Enzi started criticizing the Obama administration on the subject in October, after a report that an office within the Department of Health and Human Services had hired the prominent PR firm Edelman to help out with its messaging to reporters.
Enzi warned then that the government could not afford to spend money on messaging, and that agencies’ PR efforts could run afoul of laws that prohibit spending on propaganda.
