U.S. Government Messaging About Shutdown

Students might discuss the ethics and potential impact of federal messaging blaming the Democrats for the government shutdown.

Twice on a White House webpage—at the top of the screen and below the clock—we see the text, “Democrats Have Shut Down the Government.” The site, at the URL https://www.whitehouse.gov/government-shutdown-clock, includes a long list of organizations with quotations under “Americans Don’t Agree with Democrats’ Actions.”

Several agencies posted similar messages on their sites. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a bold, red banner referring to the “Radical Left.” The Small Business Administration (SBA) encouraged this email out-of-office (OOO) reply:

I am out of office for the foreseeable future because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R. 5371) leading to a government shutdown that is preventing the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from serving America’s 36 million small businesses.

Of course, Democrats don’t agree and say they would continue funding the government if certain conditions were met, particularly extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits.

Ethics experts say the agencies’ communication “violates laws prohibiting partisan messaging or political lobbying within federal agencies.” Students might research the Hatch Act further:

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Hatch Act, a federal law passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees, as well as some state, D.C., and local government employees who work in connection with federally funded programs. ​The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation.​​​​ ​​

A Politico writer notes restraint in an OOO email from a spokesperson for the Office of Special Counsel, which is responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act:

The spokeperson’s email did not mention the Democratic Party: “I am out of the office due to a lapse in appropriations and will respond upon return.”

If not an admission of violation, the special counsel’s message might acknowledge the gray area.