Go to HUD.gov, and you’ll get this:
Go to USDA.gov, and you’ll get this:
Seems to me these violate the Hatch Act, aka “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.” It was passed in 1939 and amended a couple of times since then. I am not a lawyer, but I know some, and I can read. One useful source is this guidance from the Office of the Special Counsel.Reading that tells me all this stuff crosses the Hatch Act line. But there are maybes in there. For example, this: “…activity directed at the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group — then the expression is not permitted while the employee is on duty.”
Whatever, seems to me this will come down to what the OSC decides. How free of politics is the OSC? Its About page says,
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency. OSC’s statutory authority comes from four federal laws: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)…
In addition, OSC enforces the Hatch Act, which puts certain restrictions on partisan political activity by government employees…
So, if the OSC believes the Hatch Act is being violated here, its focus will be on the government employees behind those clearly (to me) partisan website banners.
But will it do anything? The last guy to run the OSC was fired by President Trump early this year. It has been musical chairs since then. Jamieson Greer is currently the Acting Special Counsel. Trump’s earlier choice (and the Special Counsel in Waiting?) was Paul Ingrassia. Read about those guys and draw or redraw your own conclusions.
Look, I avoid politics here, because algorithms and an absent appetite for arguments that go nowhere. I’m a registered Independent and think leaders of both major parties are mostly fulla shit in what they are saying about the issues involved in the current government shutdown— and about each other. Meanwhile, the national debt is $37.64 trillion, up $2.17 trillion during the last fiscal year. Just one item.
Anyway, seems to me this is news. The AP, ABC, The Guardian, and others agree. Public Citizen has already filed nine complaints based on the Hatch Act. Government Executive is also on the case.
So I’m taking public notes about this, while shit’s going down. Here is what I have so far (as of 11:07PM on 3 October 2025). The partisan phrases are boldfaced.
US federal government websites with partisan notices:
| Site | Exact wording on the site | Additional sources |
|---|---|---|
| https://www.atf.gov/ | “Democrats have shut down the government. Department of Justice websites are not currently regularly updated.” | (ATF) |
| https://www.cdc.gov/ | “Mission-critical activities of CDC will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown… During the government shutdown, only web sites supporting excepted functions will be updated.” | (nccd.cdc.gov) |
| https://www.cms.gov/ | “Mission-critical activities of CMS will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown. Please use this site as a resource as the Trump Administration works to reopen the government…” | (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) |
| https://www.dea.gov/ (via DEA Museum pages on dea.gov) | “Democrats have shut down the government. Department of Justice websites are not currently regularly updated.” | (museum.dea.gov) |
| https://www.ed.gov/ | Website: I saw now partisan wording on ed.gov pages. My sister reported voicemail changes heard by callers to the Department. | — |
| https://www.fda.gov/ | “Mission-critical activities of FDA will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown.” (this also appears on FDA event postponement pages) | (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) |
| https://home.treasury.gov/ | “The radical left has chosen to shut down the United States government… Treasury’s websites will only be sporadically updated until this shutdown concludes.” | (U.S. Department of the Treasury) |
| https://www.hud.gov/ | “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government…” Others also captured this wording: “The Radical Left are going to shut down the government…“ | (CBS News) |
| https://www.omb.gov → https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ | OMB redirects to a WhiteHouse.gov OMB page, atop which is a banner that says “DemocratsHave Shut Down the Government” followed by a live count-up of days, hours, minutes, and seconds. | (The White House) |
| https://www.sba.gov/ | “Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R. 5371), leading to a government shutdown…” (This appears across SBA pages as “Special announcement.”) | (Small Business Administration) |
| https://www.state.gov/ | “Due to the Democrat-led shutdown, website updates will be limited until full operations resume.” | (State.gov) |
| https://www.usda.gov/ (and sub-agencies like ERS/FNS) | “Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open…” | (USDA) |
US federal government websites without partisan notices, listed alphabetically:
https://www.army.mil/
https://www.bea.gov/
https://www.cbp.gov/
https://www.cbo.gov/
https://www.census.gov/
https://www.commerce.gov/ (though it does feature The Trump Gold Card, which seems kinda partisan to me)
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/
https://www.cpsc.gov/
https://www.doi.gov/
https://www.dol.gov/
https://www.eeoc.gov/
https://www.epa.gov/
https://www.faa.gov/
https://www.fbi.gov/
https://www.fcc.gov/
https://www.fdic.gov/
https://www.fema.gov/
https://www.federalreserve.gov/
https://www.gao.gov/
https://www.gsa.gov/
https://highways.dot.gov/
https://www.loc.gov/
https://www.marines.mil/
https://www.maritime.dot.gov/
https://www.nasa.gov/
https://www.nhtsa.gov/
https://www.nih.gov/
https://www.nist.gov/
https://www.nlrb.gov/
https://www.noaa.gov/
https://www.nps.gov/
https://www.nrc.gov/
https://www.ns f.gov/
https://www.opm.gov/
https://www.sec.gov/
https://www.ssa.gov/
https://www.transit.dot.gov/
https://www.tsa.gov/
https://www.uscg.mil/
https://www.usgs.gov/
https://www.usmarshals.gov/
https://www.ustr.gov/
https://www.usps.com/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/
https://www.war.gov/ (formerly Department of Defense)
My purpose here is to give readers and fellow journalists some lists they can check while following this story.
Disclosure: ChatGPT made me the table and alphabetized the lists, which I compiled myself after visiting (yes) all those sites.
I invite corrections, subtractions, revisions, and other improvements.
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