New Complaint Filed Against Small Business Administration for Hatch Act Violation

Today, Public Citizen filed a complaint against the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a message on its homepage blaming “Senate Democrats” for causing a government shutdown. The complaint alleges this is a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of taxpayer money for partisan political purposes.

Public Citizen filed a complaint against the Department for Housing and Human Services yesterday on similar grounds. Experts are reviewing other instances of agencies using taxpayer dollars to fund partisan shutdown messaging.

Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen who filed both complaints, stated:

“The message being broadcast at the top of the Small Business Administration’s website is an obvious Hatch Act violation. The SBA and other agencies increasingly adopting this illegal, partisan tactic think they can get away with it because Trump has gutted any and all ethics oversight of the federal government.

“Ethics officials — as lacking in power and status as they may be under Trump — must act immediately to prove them wrong. The American people deserve better.”

The full complaint is available to review here.