Public relations and media firms are reaping big bucks from the Bush administration, which has spent at least $1.6 billion to promote its policies, a new federal report has revealed.
From 2003 through the first two quarters of fiscal year 2005, the administration spent $1.4 billion of taxpayer funds on 137 contracts with advertising agencies, $197 million on 54 contracts with public relations firms, $15 million on 131 contracts with media organizations and just under $100,000 on eight contracts with individual members of the media, according to report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.
GAO undertook the study at the request of congressional Democrats, who were motivated by disclosures last year that the Bush administration had paid members of the media, such as conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, to tout White House policy.
Report made no comparison between Bush administration's use of private PR/media and that of any previous administrations.
But staffers of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a frequent critic of the Bush White House, said in a statement: A prior study by Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee "found that spending on contracts with public relations firms (alone) had increased from $39 million in 2000 to $88 million in 2004, an increase of 128%."
GAO surveyed spending by only seven of 15 total federal agencies, strongly suggesting that the true dollar figure spent on PR/media is higher.
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