The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved legislation to update the Hatch Act, a law that imposes a barrier to politics in the day to day business of government but that some say has fallen behind the times.
The Hatch Act restricts political activity of federal employees, District of Columbia government employees, as well as state and local employees whose positions are connected to federal funds. It was last updated in 1993.
The bill, S-2170, would change the act to allow most state and local employees run for partisan elective office, and gives the Merit Systems Protection Board greater leeway to discipline employees found to have violated the act.
The head of the Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the act, praised the reforms. Carolyn Lerner said the "law too frequently causes [OSC] to interfere with the rights of well qualified candidates to run for local office," adding, "The Hatch Act Modernization Act will allow us to prioritize enforcement in serious cases of political misconduct, while respecting the independence and integrity of state and local elections."
