Workers at several federal agencies received an email from their leaders late Tuesday blaming Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown — a clear use of government resources toward political ends by the Trump administration.
“President Trump opposes a government shutdown, and strongly supports the enactment of H.R. 5371, which is a clean Continuing Resolution to fund the government through November 21,” the email stated, according to a copy provided to HuffPost.
“Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands.”
HuffPost confirmed the identical email went to employees of at least three agencies: the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration.
It’s normal for a government agency to try to prepare employees for the possibility of a government shutdown. It is not normal for agency leaders to blame one party or another through official communications to workers or the public, due to restrictions against political activities by federal employees.
Then again, the Trump administration does not hold itself to the same government ethics guidelines as its predecessors.
Earlier Tuesday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development posted a banner message across its homepage attacking the “radical left” and promoting the Trump administration’s position in the shutdown fight. Ethics experts warned that the stunt was highly inappropriate and possibly illegal.
“The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands,” the notice blared. “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”
Donald Sherman, the executive director and chief counsel of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told HuffPost on Tuesday that no agency should ever send such a message. He said it clearly violates the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, if not the Hatch Act, which restricts political activities in the executive branch.
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The standards of ethical conduct state that employees must “act impartially” and not give preferential treatment, while the HUD message conveys a clear disdain for progressives.
“It’s hard to imagine a worse message coming from a government agency than this, but this is certainly consistent with an administration that makes enemies lists,” Sherman said.
The federal government shut down early Wednesday without any clear signs of when the White House and Congress would reach a funding agreement. Senate Democrats, who are in the minority but hold enough seats in the Senate to filibuster, are demanding Republicans extend federal subsidies for people who get their insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has warned that it will use the shutdown as an opportunity to fire more federal workers.
“We’re doing well as a country so the last thing we want to do is shut it down. But a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things,” Trump said Tuesday.