The GAO report found that the EPA violated anti-lobbying restrictions in two appropriations bills, when it initiated a social media campaign to promote the WOTUS rule. The DOJ brief said the court should reject a bid by the states challenging WOTUS to include the GAO report in the administrative record, for a legal challenge that will be heard by the US District Court for the District of North Dakota.
“This one-sentence argument and citation to an opinion letter from the GAO, an agency within the legislative branch, are not relevant to the States’ motion to complete the record,” the DOJ noted in its filing.
The states brief which had cited findings by the GAO report claimed that the report demonstrated EPA’s “bad faith and other exceptional circumstances in their promulgation of the Rule, as evidenced by the recent report by the GAO that found EPA violated federal law in its use of social media to promote the Rule.”