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B-180708 1 (1975-07-22)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadclj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: F' I DECISION C THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548 N IT I FILE: B-180708 DATE: JUL 2 21975 9 13 s-S MATTER OF: Chairman of FCC - Inquiry as to the meaning and applicability of special counsel fees. DIGEST: The inclusion of special counsel fees in the appropriation providing funds for necessary expenses of the FCC is limited to payment for legal services. Authority is not thus provided for obtaining counsel services in a broad sense among the various professions. The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeks a pmicise definition of special counsel fees as included in the agency's appropriation act providing funds for necessary expenses of the FCC, Public Law 93-137, October 26, 1973, title II, 87 Stat. 491, 494. Specifically, the agency wants to know if the term counsel fees may be applied to counsel services rendered by members of all professions in a broad sense, as opposed to members of only the legal profession. For the reasons set forth below, we believe that it may not. As indicated in the FCC request, the subject terms in the context used were considered in 53 Comp. Gen. 702 (1974). That decision held that FCC could retain independent legal services of a retired Government attorney since specific statutory authority had been given the agency by the subject provision. In reaching that conclusion the decision in pertinent part reads: By sections 602, 603, and 604 of the Communications Act of 1934, Public Law 416, 48 Stat. 1064, 1102, and 1103, the Radio Act of 1927, Public Law 632, 44 Stat. 1162, was repealed and the FCC succeeded to the responsi- bilities of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) and others. Since its creation in that year, annual appropriation acts for the Commission have consistently provided for payment of special counsel fees. See, for example, the Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1936, Public Law 2, 49 Stat. 6, 9. We believe that the legislative purpose in including such a provision in the appropriation acts of the FCC and certain other agencies is clear.

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