Government Shutdown Blame Game Escalates: Furloughed Staff Messages Spark Controversy
Government Shutdown Blame Game Escalates: Furloughed Staff Messages Spark Controversy
The ongoing government shutdown has taken a controversial turn, with furloughed federal employees reporting that their official out-of-office email messages have been automatically updated to blame Senate Democrats for the funding lapse. The development, surfacing this Thursday, has sparked outrage among staff, who deny authoring the politically charged statements.
An Education Department employee, among the 87% of the department’s staff currently on furlough, expressed dismay, stating, “Those were not my words.” The automated message explicitly attributes the “lapse in appropriations” to “Democrat Senators blocking passage of H.R. 5371,” a House-passed continuing resolution. This message informs senders that the employee is on furlough and will respond once government functions resume.
This incident at the Education Department is the latest in a series of actions by the Trump administration to use official channels to assign blame for the shutdown. Earlier this week, many federal employees received emails stating President Trump’s opposition to a shutdown and blaming “Congressional Democrats” for their “unrelated policy demands.”
Similar politically charged messages have appeared across various agency websites. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) posted a notice warning that the “Radical Left are going to shut down the government.” The Agriculture Department (USDA) and Treasury Department also added banners to their websites on Thursday, asserting that the “Radical Left Democrat shutdown” and “radical left” were responsible for the funding lapse and limited website updates.
Critics are raising questions about potential violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity in their official capacity. These automated messages and website banners, however, appear to be centrally directed, shifting the focus of accountability to the administration’s leadership rather than individual employees. As the shutdown continues, the politicization of official government communications adds another layer of contention to the budget impasse.
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