A watchdog group has filed a Hatch Act complaint against two federal agencies that posted partisan messages on their websites blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown.
Public Citizen filed the complaint Wednesday with the Office of Special Counsel against Small Business Administration (SBA) head Kelly Loeffler and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner. The Hatch Act prohibits federal officials from using government resources for partisan purposes.
The SBA’s website claimed that “Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill … preventing the SBA from serving America’s 36 million small businesses,” while HUD updated its site with the message: “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.” Employees at the SBA were also instructed to use out-of-office email templates directly blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
Public Citizen called the messages “highly partisan posts” that unfairly accused Democrats while praising Trump’s efforts. While experts note the Hatch Act usually applies to election-related conduct, they said the use of federal websites for political blame is unusual and raises serious ethical concerns.
Turner defended HUD’s message during a NewsNation interview, saying, “This is not about propaganda … this is just about letting the American people know what’s going on.”
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