A legal opinion by the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that the Environmental Protection Agency broke the law with its social media and grassroots lobbying campaign advocating for its own ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rule.  Philip Ellis, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president, says the decision found the EPA engaged in covert propaganda to support the WOTUS rule.

He says the disappointing part is EPA won’t face any consequences for their actions.  However, Ellis says the GAO report confirms what producers have long suspected, that EPA is an agency with a radical agenda and the WOTUS rule is from a flawed process.  As a result the rule should be repealed.

The GAO decision finds that the EPA’s use of Thunderclap, in which a single social media message can be shared across multiple outlets at the same time, was a prohibited use of EPA’s appropriations for unauthorized publicity or propaganda purposes.