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AGENCY SHUTDOWN MESSAGING DRAWS HATCH ACT, ANTIDEFICIENCY ACT
CHALLENGES  
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Justin Doubleday, Federal News Network
October 3, 2025
Maryland Matters
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_ While Hatch Act is the focus of several complaints, one group is
arguing the messages violate federal appropriations law. _

, The Department of Agriculture, like a number of federal agencies,
has posteda partisan message on its website during the shutdown.
(Screentshot of USDA.gov)

 

The Office of Special Counsel has received multiple complaints about
federal agencies sharing political messages during the shutdown, while
one nonprofit is alleging the messaging violates the Antideficiency
Act.

Public Citizen has filed nine complaints with OSC over the first three
days of the shutdown. The group alleges agencies are violating the
Hatch Act by using “explicitly partisan messaging” blaming
Democrats for the shutdown.

“The Trump administration is violating the Hatch Act with reckless
abandon, using taxpayer dollars to plaster partisan screeds on every
government homepage that they can get their hands on,” Craig Holman,
a government ethics expert with Public Citizen, said in a statement.

The messaging in question began at the Department of Housing and Urban
Development earlier this week. HUD posted a message on its website
Tuesday stating that the “Radical Left are going to shut down the
government.”

HUD’s website now states, “The Radical Left in Congress shut down
the government.”

The Small Business Administration followed suit Wednesday with a
“special message” at the top of its website stating that “Senate
Democrats” voted to block a “clean” stopgap funding bill.

Other agencies have since posted similar messages on their websites.

Public Citizen’s OSC complaints are against HUD, SBA, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, the Justice Department, the Food
and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services,
the Office of Management and Budget, the Agriculture Department and
the White House.

Multiple agencies have also sent internal messages to their workforces
blaming the shutdown on Democrats. And furloughed staff at the
Education Department say their out-of-office messages were updated
without their knowledge to blame the shutdown on Senate Democrats.

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member
Robert Garcia (D-Ca.) has called on acting Special Counsel Jamieson
Greer to have OSC investigate the messaging for violating the Hatch
Act.

The 1939 law “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.”

But HUD Secretary Scott Turner brushed aside those concerns in an
interview with NewsNation on Wednesday night, telling host Chris Cuomo
he’s not worried “at all” about violating the Hatch Act.

“And this is not about propaganda, Chris, this is just about letting
the American people know what’s going on. But we really need to be
talking about how this government shutdown impacts the American
people,” Turner said.

OSC is an independent agency responsible for safeguarding the federal
merit system, including investigating and prosecuting potential Hatch
Act violations. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ousted
Hampton Dellinger, the Senate-confirmed Special Counsel, prior to the
end of his five-year term. OSC has been led by an acting leader ever
since.

Antideficiency allegations

Meanwhile, the Democracy Defenders Fund took a different approach to
the shutdown messaging. In an Oct. 2 letter to the Government
Accountability Office, the nonprofit urged GAO to investigate whether
the messaging violates the Antideficiency Act.

The group’s letter calls the messaging “publicity and
propaganda.”

“As a result, any employee who has participated in publishing or
directing the publication of these partisan political messages may
have violated the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prevents the use of
government resources for any reason in excess of a given
appropriation,” the Democracy Defenders Fund wrote to GAO.

GAO evaluates compliance with appropriations law, including ruling on
potential violations of the Antideficiency Act. It has issued multiple
decisions in recent months on the Trump administration’s compliance
with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

_Federal News Network is the key source of breaking news, information
and analysis for the people who support the missions of federal
agencies, including federal agency managers, policymakers and
contractors. Click here [[link removed]] for the FNN
website._

_Maryland Matters is a trusted nonprofit and nonpartisan news site. We
are not the arm of a profit-seeking corporation. Nor do we have a
paywall — we want to keep our work open to as many people as
possible. So we rely on the generosity of individuals and foundations
to fund our work._

_Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom
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nonprofit news organization._

* Federal Government shutdown
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* Hatch Act
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* Appropriations
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* Public Citizen
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