In case you haven’t heard, the federal government is currently in the middle of a shutdown. Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a budget bill, but they also refuse to negotiate or offer the Democrats anything in exchange for their votes, so here we are, yet again. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is, of course, doing her part to make everything worse with a video she wants airports to play that blames the Democrats for the shutdown. Some are going along with it, but some are also pushing back and refusing, CNN reports, citing the Hatch Act.
If Noem had her way, everyone standing in an airport security line would see a video of her saying, “It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.”
This certainly wouldn’t be the first time DHS created a video for airports to play for passengers stuck in security lines, but those videos usually aren’t blatantly political or wildly partisan like Noem’s latest video is. That’s a problem for airports across the country, since it would appear to violate the Hatch Act, a 1939 law passed specifically to ban members of the executive branch (other than the president and vice president) from engaging in political activity.
As the U.S. Office of Special Counsel explains on its website, “The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation.”
Political messaging not allowed
While not every airport refusing to play the video specifically cited the Hatch Act, they did at least allude to it, with a spokesperson for Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport telling CNN it “declined” to show the video due to its “political messaging that did not align with the neutral, informational nature of the public service announcements typically shown at the security checkpoints.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports in the greater New York City area also refused, due to “longstanding policies prevent airing of politically partisan messages at our facilities.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Port of Portland, which operates Portland International, was a little more direct, telling CNN, “We did not consent to playing the video in its current form, as we believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits use of public assets for political purposes and messaging.”
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins also released a statement on his refusal to air the video, saying, “The PSA politicizes the impacts of a federal government shutdown on TSA Operations, and the County finds the tone to be unnecessarily alarmist. It is inappropriate, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the values we expect from our nation’s top public officials.”
When reached for a comment, DHS doubled down on the partisan politics, telling CNN, “Our security operations remain largely unimpacted at this time. It’s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship. Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.”
15 airports join the protest
In a way, it’s been nice to see so many Republicans finally drop any pretense of having principles or caring about the rule of law and instead admit they’re OK with anything, as long as it helps them secure more political power. It’s terrible for the country and the hundreds of millions of people who live here, but hey, at least they’re (sort of) being honest for once. It’s also encouraging to see so many airports refuse to roll over and actually put up a fight, even if there’s only so much they can do.
It isn’t just a handful of airports in extremely blue states refusing to play the video, either. So far, at least 15 airports around the country have confirmed to CNN that they won’t be playing it, including:
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
- Bradley International Airport
- Buffalo Niagara International Airport
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport
- John F. Kennedy International Airport
- Harry Reid International Airport
- LaGuardia Airport
- Newark Liberty International Airport
- New York Stewart International Airport
- Philadelphia International Airport
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
- Portland International Airport
- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
- Springfield–Branson National Airport
- Westchester County Airport
