A federal employee union is suing the Department of Education over altered out-of-office messages sent on behalf of furloughed workers which blame Democrats for the government shutdown, reported NBC News.
"This whole-of-government approach to partisan messaging is unprecedented, and it makes a mockery of statutory prohibitions like the Hatch Act," the complaint by the American Federation of Government Employees states.
"Especially pernicious, however, are the Administration's efforts to co-opt the voices of rank-and-file employees in the nonpartisan civil service to take part in political messaging."
The suit asks the court to block the DOE from continuing the practice.
NBC reported on Thursday that five employees with the Education Department had put up nonpartisan out-of-office messages, only to see that they were changed — without their permission — to partisan ones.
"None of us consented to this. And it's written in the first person, as if I'm the one conveying this message, and I'm not. I don't agree with it. I don't think it's ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act," one person said.
"I took the statement that they sent us earlier in the week to use. And I pasted it on top of that — basically has a standard out-of-office," another Education Department employee said. "They went in and manipulated my out-of-office reply. I guess they're now making us all guilty of violating the Hatch Act."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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