Q. As a staffer for a Member of the House, one of my
responsibilities is to run his official Twitter and Facebook
accounts, and I have a question about permissible uses of those
accounts. The Member occasionally likes to help political allies by
making public endorsements during their campaigns. I figure it is
okay to announce these via Twitter as I have seen other Members do
it, but another staffer in our office said the rules might not
allow it. It's not really against the rules to tweet
endorsements of other candidates, is it?
A. Are there restrictions on members' use
of Twitter? You bet there are.
The restrictions derive from a fundamental principle about the
permissible uses of federal funds: "Appropriations shall be
applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were
made." Put another way, when Congress allocates federal funds
for a particular purpose, the funds may be used only for such
purpose.
