About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

B-281637 1 (1999-05-14)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptajho0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Office of the General Counsel B-281637 May 14, 1999 The Honorable Don Young Chairman, Committee on Resources House of Representatives Subject: Forest Service Violations of Section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act 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.' 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 'Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-83, § 303, 111 Stat. 1543, 1589 (1997). The Forest Service is funded by the Department of Interior Appropriations Act. Your letter also requested an opinion as to whether other relevant statutes had been violated, but we agreed with your staff to limit our analysis to violations of section 303.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most