The federal hiring freeze that has been ongoing since President Donald Trump took office in January will now continue indefinitely, as the White House also makes a new push to have a heavier hand in agencies’ recruitment of federal employees.
A new executive order the President signed Wednesday afternoon reaffirms that all federal hiring will remain largely limited — with a few notable exceptions. As has been the case since Jan. 20, executive branch agencies will continue to be mostly barred from creating new federal positions or filling any current vacancies.
Though the hiring freeze was set to lift Wednesday, Trump’s new order maintains strict limits on federal hiring that have been in place for nine months. Unlike Trump’s previous orders extending the hiring freeze, which included deadlines for when the freeze would lift, the new order does not contain an end date.
The executive order still allows for recruitment within the Executive Office of the President, as well as hiring of political appointees and military members. Recruitment for positions in immigration enforcement, national security and public safety are also exempted from the ongoing freeze, the White House said.
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But now, on top of maintaining the current freeze, the White House is setting new expectations for the way agencies handle their recruitment efforts. The President has tasked each agency with creating a “strategic hiring committee,” composed of senior officials and political appointees who will have to ensure that any hiring that does take place is focused on “agency needs, the national interest and administration priorities.”
Going forward, all agency hiring decisions must be approved by the new strategic hiring committees, the White House said in a fact sheet Wednesday.
The White House also noted that political appointees will “maintain oversight of federal hiring” — a concept that mirrors the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to reshape the federal workforce. The administration’s federal hiring changes this year have centered on aligning recruitment with “the President’s priorities,” while also more heavily involving political appointees in the hiring process.
The Trump administration’s “merit hiring plan,” for instance, requires agencies to include new essay questions on all federal job postings — asking applicants to explain how they plan to advance the administration’s priorities, and to identify a few of Trump’s executive orders this year that are “significant” to them.
The sharp focus on “the President’s priorities” has also bled into the administration’s changes to Senior Executive Service evaluations as well as the parameters of the new “Schedule G” employment classification for political appointees.
The administration has said higher involvement of political appointees in hiring is meant to ensure accountability and efficiency. But critics of the Trump administration’s broader workforce changes argue that they will erode civil service protections and put the non-partisan nature of the career federal workforce at risk of politicization.
Jenny Mattingley, vice president of government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service, said Trump’s new order will likely cause more confusion for agencies, while also making future federal hiring “increasingly difficult.”
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“We’re already seeing that communities across the country are feeling the impacts of haphazard staffing reductions to services they rely on,” Mattingley told Federal News Network. “Ultimately, aligning hiring to budget, programmatic and mission outcomes is important — but it should be done with the end goal of making government more effective, not just on reducing the size of the workforce.”
Agencies have been largely barred from hiring for most positions since Trump took office on Jan. 20. The President’s hiring freeze was initially intended to last 90 days, but the White House later issued two extensions of the freeze — the first in April, and the second in July.
Any hiring that does continue must be in compliance with the Trump administration’s “merit hiring plan,” the White House said. The Office of Personnel Management detailed the parameters of that plan earlier this year.
On top of launching new “strategic hiring committees,” the White House is also directing all agencies to create “annual staffing plans.” Those plans will be similarly focused on aligning with the administration’s priorities and hiring in “mission-critical areas.”
Agencies will also have to work with the Office of Management and Budget and OPM on a quarterly basis to ensure they are adhering to the staffing plans they outline in response to Trump’s new executive order.
The White House said federal recruitment in the past led to “diffuse accountability, unfocused hiring and bloat.”
The extended hiring freeze will build on the Trump administration’s major push to shrink the size of the federal workforce. OPM Director Scott Kupor has estimated that more than 300,000 federal employees will have left their jobs by the end of the calendar year.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11
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