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Law Cautions Against Outside PR Spending -- Sort Of: Rarely Applied Provision Has Been Interpreted in a Way That Condones Many Agency Public Relations Efforts

Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Christopher Lee
QUOTE: The outcry over the Education Department contract -- coming on the heels of the CMS flap and a similar violation involving prepackaged news reports at the Office of National Drug Control Policy -- has stoked interest in Congress for reviewing all federal agencies' PR efforts.

ABSTRACT: Congress has questioned whether the Education Department's  $1 million+ contract with a PR firm in support of President Bush’s "No Child Left Behind" program broke laws against government agencies spending money on political advocacy. The “Principles of Federal Applications Law” states that neither agencies nor their contractors can create products appearing to come from an independent third party, but the article explores ambiguities in its wording. Critics charged that the contract violated restrictions on insidious propaganda, but Education Department officials denied they did anything improper.

--- Misty Pegue

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