Democratic senators are alleging that the Department of Homeland Security potentially violated the Hatch Act by asking airports across the country to play a video featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the impacts of the government shutdown.
The Hatch Act restricts certain political activities by federal employees and by some state, Washington, D.C., and local government workers who are involved or work in federally funded programs.
The letter followed a number of airports nationwide declining to play the video, saying their facilities’ policies bar the showing of political content.
Some of them also pointed to the Hatch Act.
A spokesperson for Detroit Wayne Airport said it has requested that TSA stop playing the video.
The Department of Homeland Security may have violated the Hatch Act, according to Democratic senators, when it requested that airports nationwide play a video in which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blamed Democrats for the effects of the government shutdown.
“This seems to be a blatant violation of Sec. “No portion of any funds appropriated in this or any other act shall be used by an agency of the executive branch to branch… for the preparation, distribution, or use of any… film presentation designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress, except in presentation to the Congress itself,” according to Section 715. This is the case for Connecticut Democratic Senator”. Citing a passage from the Anti-Lobbying Act, Richard Blumenthal wrote the letter to DHS.
The Hatch Act prohibits some states, Washington, and D.C. from allowing federal employees to engage in certain political activities. as well as employees of local governments who participate in or work on federally funded projects. According to the Office of Special Counsel, violations can result in demotion, removal from federal employment, unpaid suspension, or a party’s ban from federal employment for a maximum of five years.
As per the U.S. government, “the law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,”. S. The website of the Office of Special Counsel.
When ABC News asked DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin for comment on the investigation request, she stated, “DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels. “..”.
“Ensuring that travelers have the most comfortable, effective, and secure air travel security experience possible is TSA’s top priority. It is a straightforward fact that the majority of our TSA employees are working unpaid because Democrats in Congress refuse to make federal funding available. Unfortunately, political scheming has placed our employees in this predicament. We’re hoping Democrats will soon understand how important it is to open the government,” she said.
The letter came after several airports around the country refused to play the video, claiming that using their facilities to display political content was prohibited by their policies. A few of them brought up the Hatch Act as well.
The DHS video was not shown at several major airports, including John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, and LaGuardia. Kennedy, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Chicago O’ Hare, Phoenix International, San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma, Charlotte Douglas International, and Colorado Springs.
According to officials at Bismarck Airport in North Dakota and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Michigan, as of Wednesday afternoon, the video was being viewed on TSA-controlled screens at the airports and was not under their control. According to both airports, the decision to play the video was made independently. According to a representative for Detroit Wayne Airport, the airport has asked TSA to cease showing the video.
The letter from Rhode Island Senator and Blumenthal to DHS. Co-signed by fifteen other senators, Jack Reed demands that the agency “stop unlawfully using federal funds for partisan political messaging and immediately remove these videos from all TSA checkpoints.”. “.
In order to determine whether any federal laws were broken or funds were misappropriated, the senators also requested that DHS include details about the funding used to create the video, such as the cost, the approver of the funds, whether any members of the Trump administration were consulted, and whether any outside contractors or organizations were involved in its production, the letter read.
A Democrat senator from Washington sent a letter that was similar. Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent a letter to the Office of Special Counsel requesting that the video be looked into. She also mentioned that the OSC is in charge of implementing the Hatch Act.
In its entirety, Secretary Noem’s video can only be logically understood as a partisan message meant to deceptively disparage the political rivals of the Trump Administration, persuade Americans to hold ‘Democrats in Congress’ accountable for the current government shutdown, and sway their future votes—all the while ignoring the reality that Republicans currently hold the White House, U.S. S. Senate, as well as the U. S. . Cantwell’s letter addressed the House of Representatives.
