Education Department employees surprised to find their email automatically changed to blame Democrats for shutdown

Source: NBC News

Education Department employees surprised to find their email automatically changed to blame Democrats for shutdown

Five furloughed employees told NBC News they had put up nonpartisan out-of-office messages, only to see they were changed -- without their permission -- to partisan ones.

Oct. 2, 2025, 12:53 PM EDT
By Natasha Korecki, Amanda Terkel, Monica Alba and Matt Dixon

Department of Education employees furloughed this week discovered their email accounts had been manipulated while they were out of office to include partisan talking points that blamed a government shutdown on Democrats.

Five employees who spoke with NBC News and provided copies of their out-of-office messages said the wording was altered from how they originally had composed them. All of them are civil servants, not political appointees, and requested anonymity out of fear of professional repercussions.

Education officials had initially sent employees templates of nonpartisan out-of-office wording to use in their emails. Several employees said they used the language provided by department officials earlier in the week only to find that while they were furloughed, someone had changed it.

One person said they changed their out-of-office message back to the nonpartisan version, only to have it then revert to the partisan wording later. ,,, "None of us consented to this. And it's written in the first-person, as if I'm the one conveying this message, and I'm not. I don't agree with it. I don't think it's ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act," this person said, referring to the law that imposes limits on political activity by federal employees.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/education-department-employees-email-automatically-changed-rcna235211