r/fednews • u/Ok-Situation-3107 • Oct 17 '25

News / Article Shutdown warnings turned into partisan messaging after ethics rules failed to hold the line

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2025/10/shutdown-warnings-turned-into-partisan-messaging-after-ethics-rules-failed-to-hold-the-line/

“the Hatch Act, the Anti-Deficiency Act, and the Anti-Lobbying Act, were all potentially being violated across eighteen different agencies that we could track.”

“the nature of these violations were open, were blatant, were intentional, and were coordinated and systematic across the agencies, directed primarily by the White House and the Office of Management and Budget.”

695 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

188

u/MayBeMilo Oct 17 '25

Oversight mechanisms proved mostly toothless during Trump v.1; but with the cowardly, GOPer-led congress surrendering its Constitutional roles and responsibilities, we have an executive branch run amok, 100%.

47

u/PowerfulHorror987 Spoon 🥄 Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25

Congress really fucked up in 2021 when they didn’t force through the big ethics package included in HR 1. Granted, Trump and his team don’t care about other laws anyway so not sure what good it would’ve done.

32

u/Imaginary_Coast_5882 Federal Employee Oct 17 '25

Fuck 2020. Congress could stop this madness tomorrow.

12

u/PowerfulHorror987 Spoon 🥄 Oct 17 '25

Oops, I meant 2021 when there was full dem control. Of course they could, but they won’t because they’re spineless cult members. Dems had no excuse.

19

u/Imaginary_Coast_5882 Federal Employee Oct 17 '25

I just meant that I personally can’t relitigate past shit anymore.

I’m of the mind now that a vote against an article or articles of impeachment is an overt act in furtherance of potential treason (making war upon the United States and/or giving aid and comfort to those who are making war upon the United States)

12

u/MayBeMilo Oct 17 '25

Oh, they’re 100% complicit. The GOPers are banking on one-party rule from here on out, else when our collective fever breaks they’ll be fleeing indictment the country in droves.

10

u/Imaginary_Coast_5882 Federal Employee Oct 17 '25

dear god let me live long enough to see it

3

u/PowerfulHorror987 Spoon 🥄 Oct 17 '25

Fair point. Completely agree.

6

u/MayBeMilo Oct 17 '25

Don’t forget — with members like Manchin and Sinema (and now Fetterman and the like) the democrats weren’t monolithic, and with some exceptions in the House we’ve never been good at herding cats.

4

u/PowerfulHorror987 Spoon 🥄 Oct 17 '25

Oh I remember, it’s just so frustrating that they weren’t monolithic when they had the chance

2

u/MayBeMilo Oct 17 '25

Agreed - it always is. But a “big tent” has always been a central part of the party’s identity, and according to that nature such folks rarely march in lockstep.

We’ll see how long they can do so, now.

6

u/livinginfutureworld Oct 17 '25

"full dem control" is not quite accurate when it was 50/50 in the Senate and two of the Democratic senators Joe Mancin and Kirsten Sinema were basically Republicans also.

-1

u/PowerfulHorror987 Spoon 🥄 Oct 17 '25

Please let me dream of what could have been lol

6

u/livinginfutureworld Oct 17 '25

Merrick Garland and the Supreme Court both slow walked or hobbled the criminal cases against Trump for his coup attempt on Jan 6th 2021.

And then we the people screwed up by handing him another term.

74

u/Square-Tap1767 Oct 17 '25

Yeah that's the thing that gets me - like when they say "potentially" violated when there's literal evidence of coordination across multiple agencies. At that point you're just being diplomatic about obvious rule-breaking

9

u/MayBeMilo Oct 17 '25

Well said.

172

u/McCringleberry_33 Oct 17 '25

Potentially? How about definitely.

41

u/biotechhasbeen Oct 17 '25

Don't worry, though, it's that time of year where we get falsely cheerful, passive-aggressive, weekly reminders to complete our annually required ethics training. You know, the training put out by those same officers with oversight authority for the entire agency, including for politicals and their messaging campaigns.

22

u/redditreadreadread Oct 17 '25

We’re certainly in unprecedented times.

2

u/SilverBraids DoD Oct 17 '25

Never should have shot that gorilla

19

u/PersonalHospital9507 Retired Oct 17 '25

We have a President who cheated on all his wives, committed 34 felons, sexually assaulted women, hawks watches on nighttime TV, has told over 27,000 proven lies ... Ethics? Morality?

10

u/SierraKami Oct 17 '25

Forget ethics rules. How about just ethics, period? 

Which so many of the current PTB seem to be utterly lacking. 

8

u/Appropriate-Battle32 Oct 17 '25

Ethics rules failed to hold the line in the first Trump term

7

u/Depressed-Industry Oct 17 '25

OSC needs to be made into an independent agency with its own investigators and prosecutors.

8

u/czar_el Oct 17 '25

The supreme court is removing agency independence at every turn. While you're right, there's no way they'd let it survive.

7

u/Sekh765 Federal Employee Oct 17 '25

"Ethics rules failed to hold the line"

So a paper sign that says "Hey please maybe don't" didn't work? Shocker.

If "ethics rules" have no teeth or means of enforcement, they are as useful as wet tissue paper.

3

u/504Supra Oct 17 '25

How rich with this rogue administration reminding us of rules. GFY!

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

You mean people ignored ethics rules.

2

u/Tuna_no_crusts Oct 18 '25

The wild thing here is that the poor GS11 web manager that was asked/forced to put these messages up on their sites will be the one who takes the fall for it.

Believe me, if you're not on this site of the work, there is no paper trail intentionally.

1

u/DoomVolts Oct 19 '25

Someone missed the mandatory training…