Overview

• Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, asked Chairman Tim Walberg to hold hearings on whether agency shutdown messages violated the Hatch Act and other laws.
• ABC News reports that the Office of Management and Budget encouraged staff across several departments to set out-of-office replies blaming "Democrat Senators" for the shutdown.
• Multiple furloughed Education Department employees say their auto-replies were reset without permission to include partisan language referencing H.R. 5371.
• The American Federation of Government Employees sued the Education Department, alleging coerced political speech and citing protections for civil servants, and says it represents roughly 800,000 federal workers.
• A Department of Education communications official defended the template as accurate, as agencies including Health and Human Services and Agriculture posted public notices attributing the lapse to Democrats.