Democrats want investigation into shutdown out-of-office email replies

[Thiệu Ngô]

Some staffers say their replies were hijacked to make a political point.

By Arthur Jones II

The top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee is urging Republicans to hold a hearing on whether the Trump administration committed ethics violations at the beginning of the government shutdown by providing politically charged out-of-office email replies for government employees.

Ranking Member Bobby Scott, D-Va., said multiple federal agencies violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities during their official duties, when they used government messaging that disparaged and blamed Democrats for the shutdown.

"Multiple Executive Departments under the jurisdiction of our Committee have taken political actions in apparent violation of the Hatch Act and other statutes," Scott wrote in a letter first obtained by ABC News. "I write to ask you to hold hearings on these acts as soon as possible," Scott said.

The federal agencies under the jurisdiction of the House committee -- including at the departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture -- are using public statements on their websites that label the lapse in appropriations a "Democrat-led" shutdown while blaming the "radical left."

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also encouraged federal employees across the government -- including at the departments of Labor, Justice and Education -- to create out-of-office email messages denouncing "Democrat Senators" for causing the government shutdown, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News.

The approach appears to differ with each agency. Some federal departments did not send out any out-of-office email guidance.

However, multiple furloughed employees at the Department of Education report their out-of-office replies were automatically reset without their permission to say: "Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume."

One Department of Education staffer told ABC News, "They [the agency] did it after everyone left." "[I'm] so p---ed," they said.

The employee added, "We as career government employees need to be neutral when carrying out our jobs. This is such bull----."

Several federal workers, including the Education Department staffer, expressed concern to ABC News that adding the messages to their email accounts would violate the Hatch Act. The Education employee, furious about the message, stressed that federal workers are supposed to "serve all people of this country."

The employee continued, "That [automatic reply] message is what anyone seeking assistance from a government worker is going to see."

In his letter to Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich., Scott condemned the out-of-office reply practice.

"The act of altering the messages of non-partisan employees to literally put political speech in their mouths is incredibly egregious, and may be a violation of additional federal criminal statutes," he wrote.

The letter comes as negotiations to fund the government are at a standstill as the shutdown stretches past a week.

Meanwhile, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) -- a union representing federal government employees whose automatic reply messages were replaced last week -- sued the Department of Education for allegedly replacing the emails with messaging that parroted the Trump administration's talking points.

"Forcing civil servants to speak on behalf of the political leadership's partisan agenda is a blatant violation of federal employees' First Amendment rights," the AFGE said in its suit.

AFGE represents approximately 800,000 federal workers across the government, including most of the remaining staff at the Department of Education.

In a statement to ABC News, Madi Biedermann, the Department of Education deputy assistant secretary for communications, said, "The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean CR and fund the government."

"Where's the lie?" Biedermann added.

Democracy Forward, the public education advocacy nonprofit representing the plaintiffs in the case, accused the Trump administration of engaging in partisan political rhetoric.

In a statement to ABC News, Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said: "This is beyond outrageous."