HHS chief Xavier Becerra latest Biden official to violate Hatch Act

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra violated the federal Hatch Act last year by publicly endorsing Sen. Alex Padilla’s re-election, a federal watchdog found Tuesday. 

The US Office of Special Counsel confirmed that Becerra engaged in prohibited political activity when he announced that he would be voting for Padilla (D-Calif.) in the midterm elections.

“To my brother, my friend and senator, and someone I will be voting for in a little bit more than a month, Alex Padilla, thank you so much, senator, for being there for all of us,” Becerra said after accepting an award at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Annual Awards Gala on Sept. 15, 2022.

“We are proud to have you as our senator.”

The OSC report notes that Becerra’s “statement was so obviously concerning that a member of his own staff, present at the Gala, gasped and said, ‘no, no, you can’t say that’ immediately after hearing it.”

The Hatch Act, enacted in 1939, prohibits executive branch employees from using “official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”

The watchdog explains that Becerra should have known better, as he participated in “comprehensive training on the Hatch Act, including a presentation from the White House Counsel’s Office just three months before the Gala.”

The report was sent to President Biden for “appropriate action.”

In an email to the OSC included in Tuesday’s report, Becerra explained that he “did not intend” to interfere with the 2022 midterm election in California with his support for Padilla, adding: “I regret this inadvertent violation.”

“While I did not realize at the time that my off-the-cuff remarks concerning my personal voting intentions were in violation of the Hatch Act, I now understand why they were not permitted,” the HHS secretary said.

“I have received additional counseling on the Hatch Act from the Department’s Ethics Division, and I will work hard to ensure that there are no future violations.”

Becerra isn’t the first Biden administration official to violate the law. 

Then-White House chief of staff Ron Klain violated the Hatch Act’s restrictions on political solicitation by retweeting a May 22, 2022, Twitter post that encouraged people to buy the partisan Democratic group Strike PAC’s “Democrats Deliver” merchandise, the OSC found in October of last year. 

Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki also copped to violating the law in 2021 by speaking in support of Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign.

Hatch Act violators can be fined up to $1,000 and face bans on federal employment, though punishments are generally far less severe and come in the form of unwelcome attention.