It’s against the law for government employees to use their office for partisan political activities.
On Wednesday, the U.S. government shut down after Congress was unable to pass a continuing resolution to continue paying federal employees and services.
That’s happened before — but this time, the rhetoric is highly unusual.
Some agencies reportedly sent emails to employees on Tuesday afternoon, while others posted public statements faulting Democrats, the “radical left,” and “radical liberals in Congress” for a potential government shutdown at midnight, I reported for the Guardian on Tuesday.
This appears to violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from using their office to engage in political activity.
“It’s highly unusual,” said Richard Painter, professor of law at University of Minnesota. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Yes, this violates the Hatch Act,” said Kathleen Clark, professor of law at Washington University. The email appeared to “impose on Democrats the blame for a government shutdown and resulting furloughs of agency employees”, she said. “In other words, this email has a partisan political goal. This email is both a violation of the Hatch Act and an abuse of government power.”
–Federal agencies blame Democrats for looming shutdown in apparent Hatch Act violation, The Guardian
(I was honored to have my story included in Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter!)
The order on politicization of the shutdown reportedly came from the top: The White House Office of Management and Budget mandated the emails blaming Democrats and allowed “absolutely no modifications to the language,” Marisa Kabas reported at the Handbasket.
As if that weren’t enough: Federal employees who have been forced to stop working because of the shutdown say they’ve had their out-of-office replies changed to make partisan political statements — and when the employees changed those messages to be more neutral, they were changed back to being political, Leah Feiger and Vittoria Elliott report for Wired.
That means they are also at risk of violating the Hatch Act, which means their jobs — already tenuous under this administration — are at risk as well.
Not a Doctor is 100% free. Sign up now for more updates on health, science, and technology.
The Trump administration has vowed to continue slashing federal agencies even while employees are furloughed — or still working — without pay.
Have a tip or suggestion for what I should cover? Get in touch securely via email (melodyschreiber@pm.me) or Signal (melodyschreiber.06).
Top image: Radek Kucharski
Not a Doctor 
Leave a comment