Public relations and advertising are a ‘black box’ in government spending

The Washington Post: News that the Department of Health and Human Services is paying a prominent public relations firm to improve its messaging to reporters throws light on a murky and little-scrutinized area of the federal budget: Advertising.

Agencies in the executive branch spent about $4.4 billion on contracts for “advertising services” from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2013, $892.5 million of that in the last year, according to a study last year by the Congressional Research Service.

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