Federal employees who would be affected by a government shutdown got a memo Tuesday informing them of possible furloughs, along with a partisan accusation that Democrats in Congress were to blame.
The memo — sent to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Education Department, the Labor Department and the Justice Department, among others — begins by saying President Donald Trump "opposes a government shutdown" and supports a House-passed Republican bill that would keep the government funded into November.
"Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands," the memo continues.
"If Congressional Democrats maintain their current posture and refuse to pass a clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded before midnight on September 30, 2025, federal appropriated funding will lapse," it continues.
It also says the government "has contingency plans in place for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by any lapse in appropriations forced by Congressional Democrats."
The memo is unsigned.
Republicans and Democrats have blamed each other for the stalemate.
Republicans are seeking to keep the government funded at the current spending levels, while Democrats want any temporary funding measure to include an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the calendar year. They are also pushing to roll back some of the cuts and changes to Medicaid that were enacted in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” this year.
While it's common for the president and lawmakers to blame the opposing party for a shutdown, it's unusual for government agencies to do so in their communications with employees.
The memos came the same day that the Department of Housing and Urban Development posted a message on its homepage blaming the "Radical Left" for any shutdown.
“The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people,” read a pop-up at the top of the page.
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen filed a complaint over the message with the Office of Special Counsel, alleging it violates the Hatch Act, which limits certain political activities by federal employees.
The "sheer crassness of this partisan advertisement by HUD using taxpayer dollars to campaign against Democrats and promote the Trump administration is going to make it exceedingly difficult for even a neutered ethics office to ignore," said Public Citizen's Craig Holman, who filed the complaint.
A HUD official denied there was any violation of the Hatch Act, saying the message was carefully worded not to name a specific party or politician.
A spokesperson for HUD doubled down on the website message in a statement, saying, “The Far Left is barreling our country toward a shut down, which will hurt all Americans.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday that a shutdown would lead to 750,000 federal employees being furloughed.
