The Trump administration is on the attack over the federal government shutdown. The attacks aren’t just coming from the White House but also federal agencies that are supposed to be absent of partisanship.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development that has a banner on its website saying “The radical left in Congress shut down the government …” and the Department of Justice website says “Democrats have shut down the government.” Numerous other federal agencies have posted partisan language blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.
”I’ve never seen something so extremely partisan as what we have here,” said University of Minnesota law professor Richard Painter, who was former President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer.
Partisanship is supposed to be removed from federal agencies. The federal Hatch Act passed in 1939 aims to ensure federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, and it restricts federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty.
On Tuesday the organization Public Citizen filed a Hatch Act complaint against the housing secretary saying “the official HUD web page includes two highly partisan postings.”
“I believe the Hatch Act could be violated in these situations if there is a mention of the elections, candidates or political slogans. These communications are right up to the line,” Painter said.
Painter said the Trump administration is getting very close to violating the Hatch Act because the postings could potentially be used to influence an election.
He says the postings are clearly in violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act, which prohibits appropriated funds to influence members of Congress.
“These agency web pages are funded by the taxpayers,” Painter said. “This is a use of taxpayer money to lobby Congress … to put pressure on the Democrats to cave in the budget negotiations that are leading to this shutdown. This is an illegal use of taxpayer money.”
A White House official tells Spectrum News the Trump administration is just sharing the truth with the American people and points to examples in the Biden and Obama administrations when they assigned partisan blame on Republicans.
Painter said it’s true, especially in the Biden administration, that there were violations, but nothing to this level.
“The so and so did it, so and so did this, so and so did that, and therefore I can do even worse, that isn’t an argument that is acceptable for the leader of the free world,” Painter said.
Hatch Act complaints are reviewed by the Office of Special Counsel. But any violations by White House-commissioned officers will be referred to the president for appropriate action, so in this case there likely wouldn’t be any penalty.