Topline
At least five U.S. airports will not air a politicized video message from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming the government shutdown on Democrats—but a legal expert tells Forbes the video does not violate the Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees from some kinds of partisan messaging.
At least five airports—Portland International in Oregon, Seattle-Tacoma in Washington and a trio of airports in New York—have refused to broadcast a Department of Homeland video in which Secretary Kristi Noem blames Democrats for the government shutdown, telling travelers “Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government” and claiming that is why “most of our TSA employees are working without pay.”
Seattle-Tacoma airport officials cited “the political nature of the content” in declining to air it and urged “bipartisan efforts to end the government shutdown” in a statement to The Seattle Times.
“We believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits using public assets for political purposes and messaging,” a Portland International Airport official told a local ABC News affiliate, adding an Oregon law prohibits public employees from making partisan statements at the airport.
Its “long-standing policy” prohibits using public service advertising for “partisan messaging,” the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, which operates Buffalo Niagara and Niagara Falls International airports in Western New York State, told a local NBC News station.
The video is “inappropriate, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the values we expect from our nation’s top public officials” as well as being “unnecessarily alarmist,” a Westchester County, New York, official said, explaining why the video will not be displayed at Westchester County Airport.
The Trump administration has been airing the video at airports across the country since Thursday, Reuters reported.
Traditionally, DHS videos screened in airports—like one featuring Noem educating the public about REAL ID requirements—are informational and avoid partisan messaging.
“This is probably not a Hatch Act violation, because it's not tied to an election,” Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at the non-partisan ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told Forbes. “But it's entirely inappropriate to be using federal resources to message on a partisan basis and disparage the opposing political party.” The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees—with carve outs for the president and vice president—from making partisan attacks while on the job “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,” according to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). A 2021 report from the OSC found 13 administration officials from President Donald Trump’s first term violated the Hatch Act by engaging in partisan messaging, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, secretary of state Mike Pompeo, acting secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and national security adviser Robert O’Brien. Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway violated the act dozens of times in her official capacity, according to a 2019 OSC report recommending that Trump fire her.
None, unless Trump decides otherwise. “As a general matter, if you violate the Hatch Act, you are subject to discipline” including potential suspension, loss of pay or even removal from position, Brown told Forbes. “But there aren't a lot of teeth for the most senior officials, when it is someone at the cabinet level who reports to the President.” The 2021 OSC report concluded that “the Hatch Act is only as effective as the White House decides it will be” and noted “President Trump’s failure to ensure compliance by his senior officials allowed for, as one federal court said of a senior administration official, members of the administration to ‘violate the Hatch Act with seeming impunity.’”
A memo sent last week from Ha Nguyen McNeill, acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), blaming “Senate Democrats’ recalcitrance” for the shutdown angered many in the workforce, according to three TSA officers who told Forbes “people are very put-off by this rhetoric” and “we feel sickened.”
TSA Warns Staff ‘Illegitimate’ Absences During Shutdown ‘Will Not Be Tolerated’ In Partisan Email (Forbes)