AP reader question: Have agencies violated the Hatch Act by using Democrat-blaming language online?

Here’s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, Deanna:

Have agencies violated the Hatch Act by using Democrat-blaming language online in discussing the shutdown?

Experts disagree on whether the Democrat-blaming language on the website of HUD and various other government agencies reaches the threshold of violating the 1939 Hatch Act, which restricts certain political activities by federal employees.

Kathleen Clark, a government ethics lawyer and law professor at Washington University, argues it does.

“These agencies are using federal resources, taxpayer-funded websites, to engage in partisan political messaging,” she told The Associated Press in an interview. “The Hatch Act prohibits federal officials from using official resources that way.”

Donald Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, disagrees, telling AP the messages discuss the Democratic Party related to a policy difference rather than an election but still calling the postings “wildly inappropriate.”

On Thursday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Office of Special Counsel calling for an investigation into the messages for “apparent violations of the Hatch Act.”

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