Additional Coverage:
Government Shutdown Commences, HUD Under Scrutiny for Partisan Website Message
The federal government officially entered a shutdown Wednesday after Congress failed to pass a short-term funding bill. The lead-up to the shutdown was marked by controversy, as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) posted a highly partisan message on its official homepage, drawing immediate allegations of a federal ethics violation.
On Tuesday, HUD’s website prominently displayed a banner blaming the impending shutdown on the “Radical Left.” The message asserted, “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,” further stating, “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”
This message quickly prompted a complaint from Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. The group labeled the banner a “blatant violation” of the Hatch Act, describing it as “highly partisan” and designed to “idolize the Trump administration… without attributing any blame for the lack of compromise causing the shutdown.”
The Hatch Act, a federal law enacted in 1939, restricts political activities of federal employees and those connected to federally funded programs. Its core purpose is to guarantee that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan manner.
Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen, voiced strong criticism, questioning how HUD believed it could “get away with this.” Holman suggested that the Trump administration had “neutered the ethics enforcement offices in the executive branch,” citing what he called a takeover by “Trump loyalists or those who are intimidated by Trump” within the Office of Special Counsel, the Office of Government Ethics, and the Attorney General’s office.
Requests for comment from HUD and the White House regarding Public Citizen’s complaint and Holman’s allegations were not immediately returned.
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal agency tasked with enforcing the Hatch Act, investigating executive branch misconduct, and protecting whistleblowers. Earlier this year, President Trump replaced Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger with acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer, a move that was upheld by a federal appeals court after Dellinger sued. The administration has also seen the firing of more than a dozen federal inspectors general responsible for investigating wrongdoing within government agencies.
The shutdown itself, which began at midnight Wednesday, followed the Senate’s inability to advance a short-term funding bill that had previously passed the House. Democrats had advocated for the bill to include a permanent extension of 2021 tax credits for Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollees and a rollback of Medicaid cuts proposed in Mr.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passed earlier this summer. Some Republican lawmakers, however, maintained that the “big, beautiful bill” did not cut Medicaid but instead aimed to eliminate fraud within the program.
House Speaker Mike Johnson stated in June that the goal was “strengthening the program” by “reducing fraud, waste and abuse.”
As the shutdown began, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle engaged in a blame game. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Republicans to “cut the garbage and get serious” on Tuesday night, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the shutdown “totally avoidable,” placing responsibility squarely on “Senate Democrats.”