The Department of Housing and Urban Development took an unexpected dive into increasingly fraught government funding negotiations Tuesday morning, warning on its website that the “radical left” would hurt the country in a looming federal shutdown.
“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,” read a bright red banner and identically worded pop-up on HUD’s landing page. “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”
The message spurred immediate criticism from federal employees and experts in government ethics and the Hatch Act, which bars most civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government from engaging in political advocacy or activity. Funding for federal agencies expires early Wednesday, and Congress is still at an impasse over how to keep the government open and prevent the possibility of widespread furloughs or even layoffs.
“It’s entirely inappropriate,” said Richard W. Painter, a top ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House now at the University of Minnesota. “It’s one thing to explain the president’s position on a dispute with Congress … To use the landing page this way is just not appropriate.”
The agency said there was nothing wrong with the banner.
“The Far Left is barreling our country toward a shut down, which will hurt all Americans. At HUD, we are working to keep critical services online and support our most vulnerable,” HUD spokeswoman Kasey Lovett said in a statement. “Why is the media more focused on a banner than reporting on the impact of a shutdown on the American people?”
HUD officials further pushed back on criticism that the website’s message violated the Hatch Act, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal decisions. The message was carefully worded so as not to name a specific party or politician, but rather an ideology, they said. They added that the message was not alluding to an election or anything inherently political, but an official process playing out on Capitol Hill. If a similar message had been shared on another platform – like on social media or a television interview – there likely would not been accusations of any wrongdoing, officials said.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions asking whether other agencies planned to display similar postings, or to a question asking about the Hatch Act.
The website messages may not violate the technical definition of the Hatch Act, as they don’t advocate for particular parties or candidates or weigh in on elections, said Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. But they do breach the “spirit of the law,” Sherman said, since people are supposed to be able to seek out government services “regardless of their party or political persuasion.”
“People are concerned about the impact of a shutdown,” Sherman said. “It’s hard to imagine a worse time for a federal agency to be [sowing] the seeds of division in this way.”
The message on the HUD website sparked concerns across the government. One senior government official – who, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation – said “this appears to present a partisan messaging using a federal resource, using HUD as an institution to promote the message which is clearly political given the ‘radical left’ wording.”
One HUD staffer, also speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the update was concerning in light of earlier overhauls to the website, which included the erasure of swaths of information and added a new quote about God on the homepage.
Tensions at HUD were already high after two fair housing whistleblowers were removed from their jobs for raising concerns about civil rights enforcement on Monday.
“And now our website is blatant propaganda blaming the other side in a government shutdown,” the staffer said.
Much of the anxiety across Washington stems from a lack of information about what would happen if no deal is reached. While federal agencies don’t typically take a stance on the talks themselves, they are expected to outline how they would handle a shutdown – what work would get done, and what wouldn’t. With just hours before midnight, many agencies, including HUD, had yet to release that guidance.
On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump told reporters that the government may fire many federal workers if a shutdown goes forward, saying, “We may do a lot. And that’s only because of the Democrats.”
But Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary told staff in a Sunday video message that the agency would be spared from permanent layoffs if the government closes.
“I was able to ensure an exemption because we are in the business of public safety,” Makary said in the video, which was seen by The Washington Post, with its contents confirmed by a federal health official.
— The Washington Post