The Trump administration is ordering federal employees being furloughed over the shutdown to set an out-of-office automatic email reply that blames Democrats for the situation, reported the Huffington Post on Wednesday.
The email directing this change "came from leaders of [the Department of Health and Human Services] Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration, or ASA, which oversees human resources and information technology at the sprawling health agency. It told recipients that creating an out-of-office message was 'required' for those who wouldn’t be working during the shutdown."
“Please use the following language,” said the email. “Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democratic senators are blocking its passage in the Senate, which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to this lapse, I am currently in furlough status and unable to respond to emails. I will reply once government operations resume.”
One HHS employee, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told HuffPost, “I take that email from ASA as coercing subordinates to engage in political activity.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. refused to answer questions about whether other divisions of the department were being given the same orders.
However, this comes amid other controversies around the Trump administration being accused of using official government resources to push political narratives about the shutdown, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development placing a message on their website stating, "The radical left is 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."
Democrats have stated that their condition for providing the votes to help the GOP reopen the government is an extension of subsidies that cover premiums under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire and cause a surge in health care costs for millions of Americans. Trump has refused to negotiate on the issue, falsely claiming that they're demanding to expand Medicaid eligibility to unauthorized immigrants.
