Federal Employees’ Out-of-Office Emails Covertly Altered to Blame Democrats Amid Government Shutdown
Federal Employees’ Out-of-Office Emails Covertly Altered to Blame Democrats Amid Government Shutdown
As the government shutdown, which commenced on October 1, persists, a contentious issue has emerged concerning federal employees’ email communications. Multiple furloughed workers at the Department of Education have reported that their out-of-office messages were automatically modified without their consent or prior knowledge. These altered messages explicitly attribute blame to “Democrat Senators” for the ongoing funding lapse.
Sources within the department, who requested anonymity due to fears of reprisal, characterized the unauthorized changes as “disturbing and violating,” expressing significant concerns about potential damage to their professional reputations. One employee remarked, “It is compelled speech and feels like a setup,” while another conveyed feeling “completely violated and concerned” about the possible repercussions. Some employees who attempted to revert their messages to a neutral, generic shutdown notice found them mysteriously switched back to the partisan version.
Madi Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications at the Department of Education, did not dispute the changes, stating, “The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean CR and fund the government.”
This issue extends beyond the Department of Education. Reports indicate that federal workers at other agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Small Business Administration (SBA), were also instructed to incorporate partisan language blaming Democrats into their out-of-office notifications. Furthermore, several federal agency homepages, such as those for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the State Department, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have displayed similar politically charged messages since the shutdown began.
Ethics experts, including Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, have voiced serious concerns. They suggest that such directives and unauthorized email alterations could potentially violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits political coercion and partisan activity by federal employees, alongside other statutes against political lobbying using taxpayer funds. Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, has already filed a complaint against the SBA and HUD regarding their partisan website messages.
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