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B-240365.2 1 (1996-03-14)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptadoo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Office of the General Counsel B-240365.2 March 14, 1996 Mr. Stephen M. Bodolay Legal Counsel Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Building 94 Glynco, GA 31524 Dear Mr. Bodolay: This responds to your request regarding the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center's (Center) authority to use its appropriation to pay clergy for invocations at graduation ceremonies associated with the completion of training. When we first corresponded with you concerning this issue, we agreed with your observation that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution might prohibit the use of your appropriation for this purpose. B-240365, Apr. 10, 1991. We further noted that the Supreme Court had just granted certiorari in the case of Lee v. Weisman, No. 90-1014, March 18, 1991, and that the Supreme Court's decisions in that case might provide some useful guidance on the constitutional issues presented by your request. The Supreme Court issued its Weisman opinion at the end of June 1992 (505 U.S. 577), and you have renewed your request for our opinion on the propriety of the payment in light of Weisman. Unless an expenditure is expressly authorized by law, we resolve questions concerning the use of an appropriation for a particular purpose by application of a necessary expense analysis. To justify an expenditure as a necessary expense, we must determine whether: (1) the expenditure bears a logical relationship to the appropriation to be charged; (2) the expenditure is prohibited by law; and (3) the expenditure is not otherwise provided for, i.e., within the scope of another appropriation or statutory funding scheme. See 63 Comp. Gen. 422, 427-28 (1984); B-230304, Mar. 18, 1988. Here, there is no dispute with respect to the first and third criteria. The sole issue is whether the Establishment Clause that provides, in pertinent part, that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . proscribes the use of your appropriation to pay clergy for invocations at Center-sponsored graduation ceremonies. 30139

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