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Washington D.C. – A powerful member of the Senate who oversees the Department of Health and Human Services is urging the agency to obey a federal court order and its statutory obligations by resuming contract negotiations with its workforce.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) says HHS negotiators have not bargained in good faith, as required by federal law and reiterated by the Aug. 24 decision striking down the president’s anti-labor executive orders.

“HHS appears to be engaging in classic surface bargaining, going through the motions of what it purports to be bargaining, but with no sincere resolve to reach agreement,” Murray wrote in a Monday letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

The National Treasury Employees Union represents about 14,000 HHS employees around the country, including the Food and Drug Administration. After only one full day of bargaining, HHS negotiators walked away from the table without explaining their final offer to eliminate 21 of 34 contract articles, and they’ve refused NTEU’s requests to resume talks.

“Senator Murray’s commitment to federal employees is rock solid and we are grateful to have her in our corner as we try to ensure frontline HHS employees have a contract that allows them to continue to serve the American people from a workplace that is fair and respectful,” NTEU National President Tony Reardon said.

Murray is the top Democrat on both the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

In her letter, Murray is critical of the agency’s decision to declare an impasse before making a “sincere effort” to resolve disagreements during bargaining.

“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this Administration as a whole does not take seriously its legal obligations under the Statute, evidenced by the issuance of the illegal, anti-bargaining Executive Orders together with the growing prevalence of bad faith bargaining behavior across federal agencies,” Murray wrote.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois sent a similar letter to Azar on Sept. 6.

NTEU represents 150,000 employees at 33 federal agencies and departments.