US Government bodies do a lot of public outreach, many have twitter/social media accounts as part of that effort. There are many reasons for this- the aforement

US Government bodies do a lot of public outreach, many have twitter/social media accounts as part of that effort. There are many reasons for this- the aforementioned help at budget time, Government officials geniunely want to be seen and celebrated as doing a good job, and a surprising amount of belief that the American people should see what "their" government is doing. The interplay with that last point (belief in transparency) interacts with institutional secrecy in weird and hillarious ways. I remember one project I worked on was shrouded in secracy to the individual teams working on it until a news program showed up and talked to the public affairs office and senior leadership. After watching the broadcast, we all of sudden understood what the heck it was we were working on!