HUD accused of violating Hatch Act over shutdown message

A message on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's website blaming "the Radical Left" for the government shutdown has prompted legal complaints and accusations of a Hatch Act violation.

HUD officials Wednesday pushed back on criticism of the pop-up window and banner on their home page stating "The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government." The Department, which also said it would use available resources to help Americans in need, promoted a similar message Tuesday on the eve of the shutdown. 

While certain government functions like Social Security payments remain intact during the impasse on Capitol Hill, it's unclear to what specific extent HUD operations are impacted. 

Attorneys and a former HUD official said Wednesday the message violates the Hatch Act, a law barring federal employees from engaging in partisan activity, meant to ensure government programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion. 

Nonprofit group Public Citizen filed a Hatch Act complaint Tuesday with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel; that office is also currently shuttered. Penalties for Hatch Act violations range from a maximum $1,000 fine up to removal from federal service. 

​A former HUD official who spoke with National Mortgage News on the condition of anonymity called the web posts an "obvious" violation, recalling training every public servant receives. 

"I've been in this field for a long time, and going back many years I've never seen anything this egregious," the former official said. 

HUD defends its shutdown message

While the Department of State and Department of Justice feature similar banners blaming Democrats for the shutdown, HUD appears the sole department to refer to a "Radical Left." HUD officials said Wednesday the message was carefully worded as to not name a specific party or politician, but rather an ideology. 

"The Far Left barreled our country into a shut down, hurting all Americans," a HUD spokesperson said in a statement. "At HUD, we are using available resources to continue supporting our most vulnerable. Why is the media more focused on a banner than reporting on the impact of a shutdown on the American people?"

Department officials said the message did not allude to an election or anything inherently political but rather to an official process on Capitol Hill, and that objections wouldn't have been raised for similar messaging on social media or television.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner shared a screenshot of the banner in question on X shortly after midnight Wednesday. He doubled down Wednesday afternoon, stating the shutdown by the "Far-Left" would impact housing and rental assistance, public housing programs and funding for services for homeless individuals. 

Attorneys who say it's a violation

While officials' frequent social media and television comments can be debated, attorneys said the HUD homepage message is a more extreme violation of the Hatch Act. Those legal experts countered HUD's argument that the message doesn't refer to a political party. 

"Anybody who has been following this for the past decade would understand that the radical left in this context is, according to members of the Trump administration, closely aligned if not completely aligned with the Democratic Party," said Tom Spiggle of the DMV-based Spiggle Law Firm. 

The department would have been better suited to post a message explaining why the government should remain open and describing how it will be impacted, said Richard Gottlieb, partner and co-chair of the banking and financial services practice at Los Angeles-based Glaser Weil.

"I think we all ought to be appalled by the use of government websites to attack the opposition party," he said. 

Richard Horn, co-managing partner of Garris Horn LLP, said there's a "very reasonable" argument the message counts as political activity under the Hatch Act, and said it serves none of the agency's statutory functions.

"(The Federal Housing Administration) is supposed to serve Americans on both the right and left," he said. "So having a statement from the agency blaming the left's politics, I don't think is a good way to run the agency." 

Will there be any repercussions?

Public Citizen in a press release suggested OSC staff tasked with handling their complaint would either be intimidated by, or loyal to, the Trump administration. Attorneys said they did not expect serious scrutiny. 

"I do not expect there will be any kind of real investigation," said Spiggle. "The administration has not been shy about putting a heavy thumb on the federal government and kind of shattering norms, if not law, separating partisan interest from the federal government." 

The OSC in August launched a probe into former special counsel Jack Smith for investigating President Donald Trump prior to the 2024 election. 

Gottlieb said he thinks the HUD messaging is the beginning of a larger campaign to convert federal websites into propaganda vehicles for the administration. 

"It's not a minor story when government agencies become pure propaganda vehicles on their websites and you use that to try to persuade the American public that the other side is the enemy of the people," said Gottlieb.