Use of General Agency Appropriations to Purchase Employee

Business Cards

N othing in the O m nibus Consolidated A ppropriations A ct o f 1997 expressly provides for, or prohibits, 

the expenditure o f appropriations o f the General Services Adm inistration for the purchase o f 

em ployee business cards.

In the absence o f a contrary provision or lim itation in its appropriations act or other applicable legislation, G SA may law fully obligate a general or lum p-sum appropriation for the purchase o f business 

cards for suitable mission-related use b y GSA em ployees.

Depending upon the particular purpose fo r which they are to be used, G SA ’s purchases o f business 

cards for its em ployees may be chargeable either to its limited appropriation for “ reception and 

recreation expenses” or to its general appropriation.

August 11, 1997

M e m o r a n d u m O p i n i o n f o r t h e G e n e r a l C o u n s e l

G e n e r a l S e r v i c e s A d m i n i s t r a t i o n

This responds to your letter of April 7, 1997, seeking our opinion on the legality 

of obligating appropriations for the purchase of business cards to be used by 

employees of the General Services Administration (“ GSA” ) for official purposes. 

We conclude that, in the absence of a specific appropriation for that purpose, 

GSA may lawfully obligate a general or lump-sum appropriation for the purchase 

of business cards for suitable mission-related use by GSA employees. Under 

GSA’s current appropriations statute, business cards may be validly chargeable 

to its general “ Policy and Operations” appropriation or to the allocation for 

“ reception and representation” expenses within that appropriation, depending 

upon the purposes for which they are to be used. Because a limitation of $5,000 

has been imposed upon appropriations that GSA may spend for “ reception and 

representation” expenses, however, the purchase of employee business cards to 

be used for that purpose would be subject to the $5,000 limitation.

I.

As stated in the memorandum accompanying your letter1, executives of GSA’s 

business lines have asked your office whether an executive branch agency such 

as GSA may expend its appropriated funds to provide business cards for suitable 

employees. For purposes of this opinion, we assume that the cards would be issued 

only for use in connection with the operations and official activities of GSA — 

for example, GSA employees might give the cards to representatives of commer1 M emorandum for David J. Barram, Acting Administrator, General Services Administration, from Emily C. Hewitt, 

General Counsel, General Services Administration, Re. The Purchase o f Business Cards with Appropriated Funds

fo r Agency Employees (Apr. 7, 1997) (“ GSA M em o” ).

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Use o f General Agency Appropriations to Purchase Employee Business Cards

cial or governmental entities with whom GSA does business or conducts operations to facilitate mission-related communications between those entities and 

GSA. We also understand that the business cards in question would generally 

contain the employee’s name, his position at GSA, and his GSA phone number, 

mailing address, e-mail address, and fax number. GSA Memo at 3.

You cite and acknowledge several opinions of the Comptroller General concluding that, with the exception of appropriations earmarked for official “ reception and representation” expenses, an agency’s appropriated funds may not be 

used for the purchase of employee business cards. E.g., Matter of Department

of Agriculture — Purchase of Business Cards, B—246616, 1992 WL 174420 (C.G. 

July 17, 1992); 41 Comp. Gen. 529 (1962). Notwithstanding those opinions, you 

have concluded “ that the [GSA] Administrator has the authority to determine that 

there is a need for business cards for certain employees and that the expenditure 

of appropriated funds for this purpose is necessary.” GSA Memo at 1.

In light of your concerns regarding the Comptroller General’s opinions on this 

issue, and the potential liabilities of certifying officers for approving the expenditure of GSA funds for employee business cards, you have requested an opinion 

from this Office to resolve the matter.

At the outset, we confirm that the opinions and legal interpretations of the 

Comptroller General, although useful sources on appropriations matters, are not 

binding upon departments or agencies of the executive branch. See Bowsher v.

Synar, 478 U.S. 714, 727-32 (1986); Implementation of the Bid Protest Provisions

of the Competition in Contracting Act, 8 Op. O.L.C. 236, 246 (1984). In the event 

of a conflict between a legal opinion of the Attorney General and that of the 

Comptroller General, the opinion of the Attorney General is controlling for executive branch officers. See Comptroller General's'Authority to Relieve Disbursing

and Certifying Officials from Liability, 15 Op. O.L.C. 80, 84 n.5 (1991). Pursuant 

to 28 C.F.R. § 0.25(a) (1996), the Attorney General has delegated to this Office 

her authority to render legal advice to the various departments and agencies of 

the Federal Government.

We also note that the Comptroller General has previously referred to the regulations of the Joint Committee on Printing (“ JCP” ) as providing an additional basis 

for disallowing the expenditure of an agency’s appropriated funds for the printing 

of employee business cards. See, e.g., 68 Comp. Gen. 467, 468 n.2 (1989). As 

a Joint Committee of the Congress, the JCP is part of the legislative branch. We 

therefore reiterate our previously stated view that regulations and requirements 

promulgated by the JCP are not binding upon executive branch agencies, including 

GSA. See Involvement of the Government Printing Office in Executive Branch

Printing and Duplicating, 20 Op. O.L.C. 214, 214 (1996) (opining that, in light 

of the supervision exercised over the Government Printing Office (“GPO” ) by 

the JCP, “ GPO’s extensive control over executive branch printing is unconstitutional under the doctrine of separation of powers” ).

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n.

A.

We first consider the current appropriations statute governing GSA expenditures 

to determine whether the question presented may be resolved on the basis of the 

existence vel non of a provision that, by its plain language, establishes whether 

GSA appropriations may or may not be used for the purchase of employee business cards. See Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997, Pub. L. No. 

104-208, § 101(f) (“ Independent Agencies — General Services Administration” ), 

110 Stat. 3009, 3009-331 to 3009-338 (1996) (“ GSA Appropriations Act” ). We 

find nothing in the GSA Appropriations Act that explicitly provides for, or prohibits, the expenditure of GSA appropriations for the purchase of employee business cards or a category of printed materials or communications aids that would 

clearly encompass such cards.

B.

The 1997 GSA Appropriations Act contains a section denominated “ Policy and 

Operations,” which appears to be the equivalent of a general expenses or lumpsum appropriation.2 The GSA Policy and Operations appropriation provides as 

follows:

For expenses authorized by law, not otherwise provided for, for 

Government-wide policy and oversight activities associated with 

asset management activities; utilization and donation of surplus personal property; transportation management activities; procurement 

and supply management activities; Government-wide and internal 

responsibilities relating to automated data management, telecommunications, information resources management, and related 

technology activities; utilization survey, deed compliance inspection, appraisal, environmental and cultural analysis, and land use 

planning functions pertaining to excess and surplus real property; 

agency-wide policy direction; Board of Contract Appeals; 

accounting, records management, and other support services 

incident to adjudication of Indian Tribal Claims by the United 

States Court of Federal Claims; services as authorized by 5 U.S.C.

2 With respect to those GSA activities and operations that are allocable to the Federal Buildings Fund established 

pursuant to section 210(0 of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, ch. 288, 63 Stat. 377, 

(codified as amended at 40 U S C § 490(f) (1994)), the portion of the 1997 GSA Appropriations Act falling under 

the heading “ Federal Buildings Fund" can also be considered in the same vein as a general appropriation available 

for “ necessary expenses ” See GSA Appropriations Act, § 101(0, 110 Stat at 3009-331.

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Use o f General Agency Appropriations to Purchase Employee Business Cards

3109; and not to exceed $5,000 for official reception and representation expenses', $110,173,000..

Id. § 101(f), 110 Stat. at 3009-336 (emphasis added). We therefore consider 

whether the broadly-described expenditures authorized by this general appropriation may properly encompass the purchase of business cards for appropriate 

agency employees.

C.

It is well recognized in both judicial and administrative precedents that federal 

agencies have considerable discretion in determining whether expenditures further 

the agency’s authorized purposes and therefore constitute proper use of general 

or lump-sum appropriations.3 As the Supreme Court observed in Lincoln v. Vigil,

508 U.S. 182, 192 (1993):

The allocation of funds from a lump-sum appropriation is another 

administrative decision traditionally regarded as committed to 

agency discretion. After all, the very point of a lump-sum appropriation is to give an agency the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and meet its statutory responsibilities in what it sees 

as the most effective or desirable way.

Similarly, in International Union, United Auto., Aerospace & Agriculture Implement Workers v. Donovan, 746 F.2d 855, 861 (D.C. Cir. 1984), cert, denied, 474 

U.S. 825 (1985), the court observed, “ [a] lump-sum appropriation leaves it to 

the recipient agency (as a matter of law, at least) to distribute the funds among 

some or all of the permissible objects as it see [s/c] fit.”

This Office has applied a similarly flexible approach in addressing the legal 

propriety of agency expenditures of their general appropriations. Thus, in 

explaining the principles that governed our conclusion that the Justice Department’s general appropriations could be used to settle certain claims against Departmental employees for actions taken within the scope of their employment, we 

stated:

[0]ur conclusion was based on the basic rule that a general appropriation may be used to pay any expense that is necessary or 

incident to the achievement of the underlying objectives for which 

the appropriation was made. General Accounting Office, Principles

of Federal Appropriations Law 3-12 to 3—15 (1982). If the agency

10ther than appropriations acts themselves, the most pertinent statutory restriction upon an agency’s use of its 

appropnations is 31 U.S C. § 1301(a) (1994), which simply provides, “ (appropriations shall be applied only to 

the objects for which the appropriations were made except as otherwise provided by law ”

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believes that the expenditure bears a logical relationship to the 

objectives of the general appropriation, and will make a direct contribution to the agency’s mission, the appropriation may be used[.]

Indemnification of Department o f Justice Employees, 10 Op. O.L.C. 6, 8 (1986).

The Comptroller General’s general approach to this issue is similar — and difficult to reconcile with its prior opinions on the permissibility of using agency 

appropriations for business cards. The General Accounting Office (“ GAO” ) recognizes a three-part test for determining whether a general appropriation may be 

used for an unspecified expenditure as a “ necessary expense” of the agency:

(1) The expenditure must bear a logical relationship to the appropriation sought to be charged. In other words, it must make a direct 

contribution to carrying out either a specific appropriation or an 

authorized agency function for which more general appropriations 

are available.

(2) The expenditure must not be prohibited by law.

(3) The expenditure must not be otherwise provided for, that is, 

it must not be an item that falls within the scope of some other 

appropriation or statutory funding scheme.

1 United States General Accounting Office, Principles of Federal Appropriations

Law 4-16 (2d ed. 1991) ( “Principles”). The Comptroller General has further 

explained his approach to this issue as follows:

When we review an expenditure with reference to its availability 

for the purpose at issue, the question is not whether we would have 

exercised that discretion in the same manner. Rather, the question 

is whether the expenditure falls within the agency’s legitimate range 

of discretion or whether its relationship to an authorized purpose 

or function is so attenuated as to take it beyond that range.

Implementation of Army Safety Program, B-223608, 1988 WL 228374, at *6 

(C.G. Dec. 19, 1988), quoted in 1 Principles at 4—17.

Considering the GAO’s three-part test, we find no prohibition against the 

expenditure of GSA funds for items such as business cards. As discussed more 

fully below, however (see Part II.D, infra), the GSA Appropriations Act does 

limit to $5,000 GSA’s general Policy and Operations appropriation for “ reception 

and representation” (“ R&R” ) expenses, a measure that “otherwise provides” 

for the purchase of business cards when they are to be used for purposes covered 

by that discrete function. On the other hand, business cards purchased for agency 

purposes other than R&R are not “ otherwise provided for” within the meaning 

of the third part of the GAO test. That leaves the question of whether the purchase

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of business cards can be said to make a direct contribution to carrying out an 

authorized GSA function for which its general appropriation is available.

We conclude that an agency head may reasonably determine that the appropriate 

use of business cards by agency employees who deal with outside organizations 

will further the agency’s statutory mission and therefore constitutes a proper 

expenditure from its general appropriations. For example, we think it is beyond 

dispute that the distribution of business cards bearing the address, phone number, 

fax number, and e-mail address of active agency representatives will tend to facilitate prompt and efficient communications with the agency by the persons and 

organizations with whom it transacts agency business. In this respect, the function 

of the business card is similar to that of other well established government 

expenditures, such as agency letterhead stationery, fax coversheets, and agency 

telephone directories.

We have considered the Comptroller General opinions consistently asserting that 

the purchase of business cards is not a proper expenditure of general agency appropriations. See, e.g., 68 Comp. Gen. 583 (1989); 68 Comp. Gen. 467 (1989); 41 

Comp. Gen. 529 (1962). Those rulings are based to a large extent on the Comptroller General’s view that business cards are items of a personal nature, primarily 

benefitting employees rather than serving the mission of the employing agency. 

In ruling that agency appropriations could not be used to purchase business cards 

for a Forest Service Public Affairs Officer, for example, the Comptroller General 

invoked and reapplied his prior decisions analogizing agency business cards to 

social “ calling cards” :

[The public affairs officer], who is familiar with our earlier 

decisions, asserts that unlike calling cards, which are primarily for 

private use and private benefit, his “ information” cards are 

“ strictly for official business.” In B-149151, July 20, 1962, we 

addressed a similar contention:

The cards in question, while denominated as “ cards of 

introduction” . . . are actually calling . . . cards. The 

“ cards of introduction” are calling cards issued to the foreign visiting student with his name added at the time of 

issuance of the card to him. The card serves the purpose

of introducing the bearer to anyone to whom the card is

presented. This is a primary function of a calling card.

(emphasis added.)

Likewise, [the officer’s] “ information cards serve the purpose 

of introducing him to those to whom he gives them and are there155
Opinions o f the O ffice o f Legal Counsel in Volume 21

fore no different than calling cards. Accordingly, he may not be 

reimbursed for the cost of purchasing the cards.”

68 Comp. Gen. at 469.

Whether or not these determinations were correct in the factual context in which 

they arose, they are not binding upon, nor necessarily relevant to, the spending 

decisions of other executive branch agencies. Rather, agency heads may make 

their own findings and determinations as to the purposes that would be served 

by the use of business cards by employees of their agency in today’s governmental 

and business environment. Here, GSA has determined that its business cards 

would provide information to “enable[] the public, GSA’s vendors, and GSA’s 

agency customers to communicate more efficiently and effectively with GSA in 

the conduct of official business.” GSA Memo at 3. We believe that constitutes 

a clearly permissible use of general agency appropriations.

D.

Although we conclude that business cards used for appropriate agency-related 

purposes may be a proper expenditure of an agency’s general appropriations, there 

remains the question of whether the purchase of such cards by GSA is governed 

or restricted by, or chargeable against, the specific limitation on R&R expenses.

The current GSA “ Policy and Operations” appropriation includes language providing for “ not to exceed $5,000 for official reception and representation 

expenses.” See GSA Appropriations Act, § 101(f), 110 Stat. at 3009-336. This 

raises the question whether that specific provision is applicable to the purchase 

of business cards and, if so, whether the existence of the specific R&R limitation 

forecloses the use of more general appropriations.

Both this Office and the Comptroller General have applied the general principle 

that where a specific provision limits the amount that may be expended on a 

particular object or activity within a general appropriation, the agency’s general 

appropriations cannot also be used for that same category of expenditure when 

the limits have been reached. We have applied that principle in concluding that 

such a limitation on the amount that can be used for R&R expenditures within 

a general appropriation precludes use of the general appropriation for R&R 

expenses when the R&R spending limits have been exhausted. Memorandum for 

Mike Kelly, Special Assistant to the Attorney General, from Mary C. Lawton, 

Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Re: Official Representation Fund at 1 (Apr. 15, 1977) (“ Kelly Memo” ). The Comptroller General 

has endorsed and applied the same rule. See 1 Principles at 2-18 to 2-19; 20 

Comp. Gen. 739 (1941).

Several opinions of the Comptroller General have stated that appropriations earmarked for R&R expenses may properly be used for the purchase of business 

cards for appropriate agency employees. For example, in ruling that the Depart156
Use o f General Agency Appropriations to Purchase Employee Business Cards

ment of Agriculture could not use its general appropriations to purchase business 

cards for its public affairs officers, the Comptroller General opined that there must 

be “ specific statutory authority” to justify such an expenditure. 68 Comp. Gen. 

467, 468 (1989). As the opinion further explained:

Such specific authority could be provided, for example, by a lineitem agency appropriation for official reception and representation 

expenses. Calling or business cards are a legitimate means of “ representation,” and an agency head could determine that their use 

by certain officials or employees would be a necessary representation expense.

Id. at 468 n.l; see also 1 Principles at 4—200; United States Trade Representative— Use of Reception and Representation Funds, B—223678, 1989 WL 240750 

(C.G. June 5, 1989).

This Office has also considered the proper use of R&R appropriations on a 

number of occasions. Referring to the Department of Justice’s R&R appropriations, we observed that “ the legislative history of the Fund indicates that one 

of its purposes is to pay the infrequent but necessary costs of official meetings 

with non-governmental organizations for which other appropriated funds are not 

available.” Kelly Memo at 1. In another opinion, we concluded that the key 

consideration in determining whether an expenditure may be charged to the 

Department’s R&R Fund is that “ the Fund is intended to provide for infrequent, 

miscellaneous activities, usually (but not exclusively) involving ‘outside [of the 

Department]’ representatives who are of special interest to the Department,” but 

which could not otherwise be funded from within existing appropriations. Memorandum for Kenneth E. Starr, Counselor to the Attorney General, from Theodore

B. Olson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Re: Coffee

Expenditure in Connection with Generator Meeting in United States v. Seymour

Recycling Corp. at 5 (Apr. 4, 1983) (alteration in original).

Considering all the foregoing, we conclude that agency business cards may be 

validly chargeable to either an R&R appropriation or to a general appropriation 

depending upon the purpose for which they are to be used.

If the business cards are to be used primarily as a means of facilitating necessary 

agency-related communications between the agency and those with whom it deals, 

both inside and outside the government — in the same way, for example, that 

letterhead stationery, fax coversheets, or agency telephone directories serve that 

purpose — we believe that they are properly chargeable to the general appropriation. This would particularly be the case with respect to agency employees who 

actually anticipate receiving agency-related telephone calls, correspondence, or 

other communications from those to whom they present the cards. We think an 

agency head’s determination that such a use of business cards serves the agency’s

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lawful purposes is well within the substantial discretion allowed in this area. At 

the same time, we do not think that the use of business cards as a practical 

communications-facilitating tool is properly categorized along with meals, receptions, and gifts as a “ reception and representation” expenditure.

On the other hand, we believe that some uses for which business cards might 

be employed would be properly, and exclusively, chargeable against an agency’s 

limited R&R ceiling, if any. For example, the use of such cards merely to conform 

to social or business custom in a particular country, geographic area, or line of 

business fulfills a function more closely analogous to meals, receptions, and gifts 

than to such standard communications tools as letterhead stationery, fax 

coversheets, or agency phone directories.

We recognize that the uses for which particular agencies may employ business 

cards may not be precisely confined to one category or the other. Taking that 

into account, the appropriation account or category to which the purchase of business cards may be charged should depend upon the predominant purpose for which 

they are to be used. If the primary purpose is facilitating necessary agency-related 

communications, we believe they may properly be purchased with general appropriations. If, on the other hand, the primary purpose is to extend courtesies or 

conform to social or business custom in the context of agency-related activities, 

then the purchase of the cards should be charged as an R&R expense.

RICHARD L. SHIFFRIN

Deputy Assistant Attorney General

Office of Legal Counsel

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