Alleged Lobbying Activities

GAO investigated alleged lobbying by the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). GAO found no illegal lobbying by the Office in its publications or any of its own activities. Violations of the prohibition against grass roots lobbying, however, did occur at two conferences. The grantee who organized an alcohol policy conference set aside time on the agenda for meeting with Members of Congress, and it was clear that this was to be for the purpose of lobbying for pending legislation. The Office, however, did not participate in planning or executing the lobbying. Another violation took place at the Healthy People/Healthy Environments conference when speakers urged that the audience lobby Members of Congress in support of pending legislation. Although HHS and the Office neither planned nor had advance knowledge of the grass roots lobbying at this conference, appropriated funds were used for grass roots lobbying.

GAO found that: (1) OSAP did not violate the anti-lobbying law in its publications or in any of its own activities; (2) the grantee sponsoring an OSAP-funded conference and speakers at a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)-funded conference engaged in prohibited grass-roots lobbying, but OSAP and HHS had no prior knowledge of or complicity in the planned lobbying; (3) although OSAP, as a clearinghouse, must publish prevention information with as few restrictions as possible, it must be sensitive about items regarding controversial activities; (4) restrictions on grass-roots lobbying do not apply to activities in connection with state legislation; (5) there is no evidence that OSAP attempted to have the GAO investigation terminated; and (6) one OSAP grantee urged its members to request that members of Congress withdraw from the investigation request, but the grantee did not use appropriated funds for that purpose.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: