A bi-partisan pair of U.S. Senators is requesting information from federal agencies about PR, advertising and similar services contracts in a bid they say is aimed to root out wasteful spending.

Sen. Rob Portman (D-Ohio) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) have dispatched requests to 11 federal agencies to look at PR contracts in a bid to gauge “how much money the administration is pending to promote its own policies.”

Portman, the ranking Republican on the Senate’s Subcommittee on Contract Oversight, said the move is not partisan but is a reaction to “accounts of wasteful federal spending on PR contracts.” McCaskill chairs that subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

An unidentified Portman aide was more blunt speaking to Roll Call in saying, “This investigation will further probe this administration’s use of taxpayer-funded spin.”

The senators have asked federal agencies like the Dept. of Health and Human Services, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Justice, and Dept. of Defense, among others, to produce documents by March 16.

Fox News, also citing an anonymous Portman aide, said the aide pointed to a Judicial Watch report last year which singled out Ogilvy’s work promoting the healthcare.gov site about healthcare reform.