{"id":40135,"date":"2026-09-09T12:01:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T17:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=40135"},"modified":"2026-09-09T12:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T17:01:41","slug":"the-hatch-act-defines-limits-on-political-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/09\/09\/the-hatch-act-defines-limits-on-political-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hatch Act defines limits on political participation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Hatch-Act-a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40136\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Hatch-Act-a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"417\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Hatch-Act-a.jpg 417w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Hatch-Act-a-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 417px) 100vw, 417px\" \/><\/a><\/h2>\n<h2 class=\"sub-head\"><em>This federal law applies to social media use, clothing and more<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">USPS News Link &#8211; 9\/9\/26 &#8211; The Postal Service is reminding employees about the Hatch Act, a law that restricts the partisan political activity of the federal workforce \u2014 including USPS employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Partisan political activity is any action directed toward the success or failure of a political party, partisan political group or a current candidate for a partisan political office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Postal Service employees cannot do the following while on duty, in uniform, wearing a USPS badge, in a postal vehicle or on USPS property:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Distribute, share or display partisan political materials or campaign slogans;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Wear clothing or accessories with messages or images for or against a political candidate, party or group;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Post or engage with partisan political content on social media;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Place a partisan bumper sticker on a USPS vehicle or a personal vehicle that is used to deliver mail; or<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Have conversations to sway others\u2019 opinions regarding a partisan candidate, political party or partisan political group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While off duty, employees cannot:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Become a candidate in a partisan election;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Solicit or accept political contributions for a partisan candidate or political party;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Host or invite others to a political fundraiser; or<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Use their Postal Service title or position to influence or interfere with elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Hatch Act does not prohibit employees from discussing current events or policy issues while on duty. And employees are allowed to display one standard-size, partisan bumper sticker per candidate on a privately owned vehicle when parked on USPS property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Penalties for violating the Hatch Act include suspension, fines and being banned from federal employment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Office of Special Counsel\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.osc.gov\/services\/hatch-act\/faq\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FAQ website<\/a>\u00a0has additional information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Employees with questions can\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:ethics.help@usps.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email<\/a>\u00a0the USPS Ethics Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This federal law applies to social media use, clothing and more USPS News Link &#8211; 9\/9\/26 &#8211; The Postal Service is reminding employees about the Hatch Act, a law that restricts the partisan political activity of the federal workforce \u2014 including USPS employees. Partisan political activity is any action directed toward the success or failure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40138,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40135\/revisions\/40138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}