Throwback Thursday: Public Relations Budgets Increased By $60M
Between 1983 and 1985, the Office of Management and Budget let public relations budgets across federal agencies increase by $60.5 million – a 16% increase, and worth over $166 million in 2023 dollars.
Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, awarded the OMB his Golden Fleece Award in 1986 for this ridiculous spending.
According to Proxmire, a study he commissioned found that the spending on public relations from federal agencies jumped from $376.2 million to $436.7 million. Proxmire attributes the increased PR budget to increases in “the number of unfavorable stories and congressional oversight hearings” regarding the executive branch.
This study may have underestimated the increase, with marginally related PR activities like the Department of Defense’s special teams and ceremonial bands being excluded from the final figures. The General Accounting Office, which conducted this study, used a strict definition of PR expenditures, only including what was unquestionably a PR expense, Proxmire found.
Executive agencies spending taxpayers’ money on PR and advertising is nothing new. Agencies will often conduct PR campaigns to advertise new programs or initiatives to show taxpayers where their money is going.
Unfortunately, massive PR expenditures continue to this day. In 2015, Open The Books updated Proxmire’s study, and found $4.34 billion in public relations spending from 2007 to 2014. It also found that based on the number of employees, the U.S. government would be the second largest PR firm in the world.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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