The Senate Budget Committee has launched a probe of federal government PR and advertising spending, noting the estimated $1B in spending on outside pacts.

Sen. Mike Enzi, the Wyoming Republican who chairs the committee, has asked the Office of Management and Budget for an accounting of executive branch spending for fiscal 2015, following a Washington Post report about Edelman's work for the Dept. of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"Agency spending on advertising, public relations and media relations is largely a black box ... it's hard to tell how much is spent and where the money is going," he wrote in a letter to OMB chair Shaun Donovan.

Enzi notes that federal law prohibits appropriated federal funds being used for publicity or propaganda purposes, or for lobbying Congress.

"Legal issues aside, unnecessary media relations spending is a cost that the nation simply cannot afford," wrote Enzi.

Fiscal 2013 PR and ad spending approached $1 billion with $900M on ad services and $87M for PR, according to the senate committee.