Hello, and welcome to one of several presentations about the ethics rules that apply to
all Federal employees.
My name is Danielle Barrett and I'm from the USDA Office of Ethics.
Today I will be talking about the Hatch Act as it applies to Further Restricted Employees.
Further Restricted Employees include Career SES employees and Administrative Law Judges,
as well as Contract Appeals Board Members and Administrative Appeals Judges.
So if you fall into one of those categories, this video applies to you.
If you are a less restricted employee, such as a GS level employee or a non-career SES
employee, take a look at our video called The Hatch Act Rules for USDA Employees instead.
This video is going to cover the do's and don'ts for Further Restricted Employees
when it comes to campaign activities, political parties and events, mixing your official title
with politics, and political coercion in the workplace.
We'll also run through a couple of hypothetical scenarios to illustrate how the rules can
apply to real life situations.
Let's start with campaign activities.
As a further restricted employee, you really can't have any active role in a partisan
political campaign.
That includes working for a campaign (whether you're being compensated or not), making
campaign speeches, distributing campaign materials, fundraising for the campaign, and circulating
nominating petitions.
You can sign a nominating petition yourself and you can donate to the campaign yourself,
but you can't take a more active role than that—even on personal time.
This brings us to our first Hypothetical.
Let's say Robert, an SES employee at USDA, wants to spend his next Saturday going door
to door in his neighborhood, telling all his neighbors why they should vote for Jerry Governski
in the Republican primaries for governor.
Robert has also prepared a brochure to hand out to the neighbors that seem interested.
He's not being paid.
He'll be on personal time and he doesn't plan to use his official title.
Can Robert do this?
No, he can't.
The Hatch Act prohibits Robert both from working on the campaign and from distributing campaign
materials—even if he's unpaid, on personal time, and not using his official title.
Since he can't campaign for Candidate Governski, what if Robert decides to just run for partisan
office himself?
Under the Hatch Act, he cannot do that either.
Running for partisan political office and fundraising for partisan candidates are two
political activities that both Further Restricted Employees and Less Restricted Employees are
prohibited from taking part in.
Just like you're prohibited from taking an active role in political campaigns, you're
also prohibited from taking an active role in partisan political clubs and parties.
That means that you can't hold office in a political party or club, you can't organize
political meetings or rallies (though you can attend them as a member of the general
public), and you cannot take part in partisan voter registration drives or partisan get-out-the-vote
drives.
Nonpartisan voter registration drives are fine, just like most other nonpartisan political
activity.
And of course, you always have the right to vote.
When you're engaging in political activity that is permitted, like attending a rally,
remember that you may not use your official title or position.
This is because you don't want to imply the federal government itself supports or
opposes a certain candidate.
That includes wearing your badge to the rally, or any other item that identifies you as a
federal employee.
It also means that you shouldn't verbally identify yourself as a federal employee.
So you can go to a rally to support Candidate X, but avoid saying "As a USDA employee,
I believe Candidate X will be best for farmers."
The same goes for social media; you can list your position on your Facebook profile and
separately post your political opinions, but don't write a status update that says "I
work for the Forest Service and if you elect Candidate Y, all of our trees will die."
You also shouldn't invite your subordinates to these political events or suggest they
take part in any political activity, because one purpose of the Hatch Act is to protect
employees from political coercion in the workplace.
This holds true for both Further Restricted and Less Restricted employees, and includes
even indirect solicitation like offering your subordinate a ride to a political rally.
Essentially you should avoid any situation where your subordinate might feel like they
have to do something political or else face consequences in the workplace, even if that
wasn't your original intention.
Let's do another Hypothetical.
Angela is an SES employee in Ohio and she wants to go to a political rally for Patricia
Pepper, a democrat running for Congress.
She invites her subordinate Randy to go with her because she knows that his political views
are similar to her own.
What did Angela do wrong?
a) Attend a political rally b) Invite her subordinate to a political rally
c) All of the above The answer is b) Invite her subordinate to
a political rally.
Angela is perfectly within her rights to attend the rally herself but she shouldn't have
invited someone she supervises, even if she suspects that Randy supports Patricia Pepper.
Now Randy might feel coerced to attend the rally even if he prefers a different candidate.
If you have questions about any of the Hatch Act rules for Further Restricted Employees,
please don't hesitate to contact the Office of Ethics for advice.
Thank you for watching, and have a great day!
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