Hatch Act

The Hatch Act is a 1939 federal law that strictly limits the political activity of federal employees. It was designed to prevent the Works Projects Administration (WPA) from becoming a national political machine. It remains law today.

The Pendleton Act (1883), supplemented by executive orders of Presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, limited the political activities of career civil servants (e.g., in the General Service (GS) series, or GG series in the United States intelligence community). The Hatch Act (1939) extended limitations to employees appointed by the current administration (e.g., Schedule C) as well.

Gall (1995) chronicles the Hatch Act from its passing in 1939, through its amendment in 1940, and to its further amendment in 1993. New Mexico Senator Carl A. Hatch drafted "clean up government" legislation that included a provision prohibiting federal employees from taking an active part in partisan political activity. The United Federal Workers of America (UFWA), an affiliate of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) challenged the law's constitutionality, <see talk page>