OSC also said it has received questions and complaints regarding federal employee involvement with “Project 2025." Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Office of Special Counsel has posted a warning to federal employees about potential Hatch Act violations from using their social media accounts to solicit contributions for partisan candidates, saying that has resulted in suspensions of employees in two recent cases.
It said that one case involved an employee who posted messages while on duty supporting a local candidate in a partisan political election, “one of which solicited monetary contributions to the candidate’s campaign.” The other involved at least two messages that “solicited donations for the campaign of the employee’s father, a candidate in a partisan primary election.”
Both cases were settled, it said, with the first resulting in an unpaid 10-day suspension and the second an unpaid seven-day suspension.
“While OSC deals with some close calls in its Hatch Act enforcement, federal employees soliciting donations for a political campaign is express advocacy and a clear-cut violation. We urge federal employees not to cross these brightest of lines. When it happens, OSC will take action,” it said.
The OSC also said it has received questions and complaints regarding federal employee involvement with “Project 2025,” a plan for a future Republican administration by a Heritage Foundation offshoot with ties to former President Trump, and about signage at federally funded project sites that describes the funding source as, for example, “President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
In the former case, it said, activities do not violate the Hatch Act because the Heritage Foundation is not a “partisan political group” as the law defines one, and in the latter because “associating legislation with a particular president is not, by itself, political activity” under the law.
The OSC further said it found a Hatch Act violation by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro for comments during an official trip supporting the re-election of President Biden. Such findings against top political appointees have been common across recent administrations and rarely result in any consequences beyond an apology since discipline of such officials is in the hands of the President.
The OSC meanwhile said it found no violation in a letter sent to student loan borrowers by Secretary Miguel Cardona. While the letter stated that “Republican elected officials” are “siding with special interests and are trying to stop efforts by President Biden and ED to make repaying student debt affordable and realistic,” it did not refer to candidates, elections, or voting as prohibited by the Hatch Act, it said.
It also found no violation by former Attorney General William Barr regarding comments made in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential election but said those conclusions “should not be viewed as encouraging unnecessary partisan references, particularly in the context of legal discussions.”
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