Panel Okays Bill to Free D.C. Employees of Hatch Act Restrictions

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved legislation yesterday that would free District of Columbia employees from federal Hatch Act restrictions.

But D.C. workers shouldn't think they soon will be free to engage in any political activities that are now prohibited. The act says federal and D.C. workers may not be candidates for public office in partisan elections and engage in political activity, including wearing partisan political buttons, while on duty.

Under the bill the committee approved by unanimous voice vote, the federal Hatch Act would continue to apply to D.C. workers until the District approves its own law regulating the political activity of local government employees. Those workers were never freed from the restrictions of the federal law after D.C. received its current level of home rule.

“The Federal Hatch Act jurisdiction over local law is an obsolete pre-home rule holdover,” Norton said. “It is a misfit between the city and the federal government, which has no familiarity with local laws. The District is not a ward of the federal government. The city is as able as any other to pass its own local Hatch Act.”

By Eric Pianin  |  June 5, 2009; 11:16 AM ET
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