Kristi Noem shutdown airport video may violate Hatch Act: Cantwell
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) speaks at a press conference following the weekly policy luncheon on Capitol Hill on June 3, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell asked U.S. on Wednesday. Special Legal Consultancy to research Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for “possibly” violating Cover Act by creating a video to be shown at airports blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees, including Cabinet secretaries, from engaging in political activities while performing their official duties.
Several major airports, including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Cantwell’s home state of Washington, as well as airports in Chicago and New York, refused to show Noem’s video near passenger screening lines.
Some airports specifically mentioned in their decisions the possibility that the video might violate the Hatch Act. The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for investigating potential Hatch Act violations.
In a letter Cantwell wrote to Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer calling on Noem to “broadcast a partisan video message on televisions at public airports across the country”; In this message, he incorrectly blamed ‘Democrats in Congress’ for the impact of the current government shutdown on airport ‘operations’. Transportation Security Administration … employees ‘work for free.'”
“This message is not only wrong; it appears to violate the prohibitions of the Hatch Act,” member Cantwell wrote. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Cantwell said recent reports show DHS used taxpayer dollars and federal assets to produce and release the video featuring Noem in her official capacity.
The letter states that in the video, Noem is standing in front of an American flag next to the official emblem of Homeland Security.
“On the whole, Secretary Noem’s video can only be reasonably interpreted as a partisan message intended to misleadingly disparage the Trump Administration’s political opponents, persuade Americans to blame ‘Democrats in Congress’ for the ongoing government shutdown, and influence their future votes, all while keeping the reality that Republicans currently control the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives,” Cantwell said. “Ignores it,” he wrote.
“As the independent agency responsible for enforcement of the Hatch Act, I ask that you investigate this matter immediately,” Greer wrote.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cantwell’s letter.
A spokesman for the Port of Seattle, which operates the Seattle-Tacoma airport, said Noem’s video was not played “due to the political nature of the content.”
A spokesperson for Portland International Airport in Oregon told CNBC that the airport “did not allow the video to be played in its current form because it believes the Hatch Act expressly prohibits the use of public property for political purposes and messaging.”
