Federal Workers Told To Halt External Communication In First Week Under Trump Staff have been told [View all]

[Alekzander]

to stop talking to Congress and the press.

WASHINGTON ― Multiple federal agencies have told their employees to cease communications with members of Congress and the press, sources have told The Huffington Post.

The freeze has startled aides on the Hill and people at those agencies, who worry that it could abruptly upend current operations and stifle work and discussions that routinely take place between branches of government.

Officials at sub-agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, have been told not to send “any correspondence to public officials” according to a memo shared with HuffPost. Instead, they have been asked to refer questions to agency leadership until the leadership has had time to meet with incoming White House staff about the new administration’s policies and objectives, according to a congressional official who was also informed of the communications freeze.

It’s unclear how wide the freeze goes as an official close to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, said that agency was unaware of any such freeze.

That said, there also appears to be a lockdown on external communication at the Environmental Protection Agency. As HuffPost reported Monday, a memo went out within the agency following a briefing for communication directors. The memo said there would be no press releases, social media posts or blog messages until further notice. It also asked for a list of external speaking engagements for staff and any planned webinars. It warned that listservs would be reviewed and that staff should “only send out critical messages, as messages can be shared broadly and end up in the press.”

The EPA has also frozen its grants, sources told HuffPost on Monday. ProPublica later confirmed that freeze, as well as a stop on federal contracts, in an interview with transition sources.

A similar directive has been issued to staffers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research arm, BuzzFeed News reported Tuesday. The Agricultural Research Service employs 2,000 scientists and postdoctoral researchers. “Starting immediately and until further notice, ARS will not release any public-facing documents,” wrote Sharon Drumm, chief of staff for the research service, in a department-wide email that BuzzFeed obtained. The list of prohibited external communication included news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds and social media content.

The Trump White House did not respond to a request for comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-communication-freeze_us_58878b3ae4b0441a8f7114e2?p0jpp58ohp6ekx1or&