Congress demands records of partisan shutdown messaging by federal agencies
H.Res. 825 — Of inquiry requesting the President to transmit certain information to the House of Representatives referring to United States Government agencies sharing certain communications with the public and Federal employees. · Filed by Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) · 16 cosponsors · Introduced Oct 21, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This resolution requests the President to provide Congress with all documents and communications related to how federal agencies communicated about a government shutdown in October 2025. Specifically, it seeks records about an OMB directive on shutdown messaging, HUD's website post blaming Democrats for the shutdown, and the Education Department's modified out-of-office messages that blamed Senate Democrats. It also requests legal analysis from multiple agencies on whether these communications violated federal laws restricting political activity by federal employees and misuse of appropriated funds.
Why we flagged it
This is a House Resolution of Inquiry—a procedural tool requesting executive branch documents for congressional oversight. It does not create law or policy; it seeks information about potential violations of existing federal employee conduct and appropriations laws.
What the text implies
- The resolution targets specific partisan messaging by federal agencies during a shutdown, suggesting a pattern of politicization of the civil service that may extend beyond these three examples.
- The request for legal analysis from the Office of Special Counsel (an independent agency) may result in formal findings of law violations, which could trigger disciplinary or criminal referrals.
- If agencies cannot produce the requested documents, it may signal destruction of records or non-compliance with document retention requirements, which itself raises accountability questions.
Who it affects
Citizens benefit from transparency about whether federal agencies were used for partisan political messaging during a shutdown, and whether those communications violated laws designed to protect the civil service from politicization. Congressional oversight of executive branch conduct serves the public interest in accountable government.
Named in the bill
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Office of Special Counsel, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 5 USC § 7323, 5 USC § 7324, 31 USC § 1341
Where it stands
16 cosponsors: 16 Democrats.
- Oct 21, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $690,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 69 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Kweisi Mfume, the sponsor, reported $253,300 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Treasury Employees Union — $690,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 6, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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