Federal agencies must develop plans to reduce the size of their workforces through efficiencies and attrition, President Trump announced Monday, specifying in a memorandum that they must implement these proposals before lifting the hiring freeze he put in place.
Trump froze federal hiring Monday in a presidential memorandum, following the practice he established when he took office in 2017. The federal workforce reduction plans also mirror those he demanded to lift the moratorium on hiring that he had instituted during his first mandate. In this case, most agencies never ended up developing final plans to reduce their workforces, and the White House later denied ever requesting plans for reductions.
Trump’s latest hiring freeze is expected to last 90 days, with the exception of the Internal Revenue Service where it will remain in effect until the Treasury Department and other officials agree it is “in the national interest” to lift it. Trump has made it clear that subcontracting to get around the freeze is prohibited.
“In implementing this memorandum, the heads of the Executive Departments and agencies will seek to effectively use existing personnel and funds to improve public services and the delivery of those services,” Trump wrote.
As expected, the freeze will not apply to the military or positions related to immigration, national security or public safety. The freeze will otherwise take effect regardless of the agency’s funding source. Political appointments under Schedule C of the Non-Career Executive Service will continue. The Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance Monday authorizing an unlimited number of appointees that Trump can temporarily deploy to agencies as his administration gets up and running, reversing more limited guidance proposed by the Biden administration.
The memo says the freeze is not expected to negatively impact the distribution of Social Security, Medicare or Veterans Affairs benefits, although it is not immediately clear whether some positions will still be frozen in the agencies concerned. The Department of Veterans Affairs allowed the recruitment of doctors and nurses to continue in 2017, when this freeze was in effect, but froze the onboarding of new support and administrative staff.
Agencies can continue to make reallocations “to meet the highest priority needs, maintain essential services, and protect national security, homeland security, and public safety,” Trump said in the memo. In the absence of all these exemptions, the President declared that no vacancies as of Monday noon could be filled.
In developing their plans to downsize, Trump directed the agencies to work with his nongovernmental Commission on Efficiency, the Department of Government Effectiveness and the U.S. Digital Service. DOGE team members are expected to be deployed to the Office of Management and Budget, USDS, and government agencies, a proposal that has raised questions about transparency and chain of command.
The Trump administration and DOGE officials have floated various proposals to further reduce agency workforces, including buyouts and early retirement incentives, relocating agencies, requiring employees to report to their assigned locations every day. assignment instead of teleworking and even imposing massive workforce reductions.
The Government Accountability Office has expressed concerns about the impact of Trump’s and previous hiring freezes, saying they were not effective, did not save money and exacerbated labor problems. of existing works. Good governance groups and federal employee unions were quick to criticize Trump’s plans.
Max Stier, president of the Public Service Partnership, said the freeze was “management by autopilot rather than a thoughtful choice about where we need more or perhaps fewer federal employees.” .
“President Trump’s directive to freeze federal hiring will make government agencies less responsive to the needs of the public,” Stier said. “This order could leave agencies with hiring shortfalls in critical areas, and it will deter the talented workers needed to keep a government running smoothly, especially those with specialized skills.” »
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said there was “no legitimate justification” for cutting the federal workforce given that the size of the workforce has barely changed over the last 50 years, while the American population has increased significantly.
“Make no mistake,” Kelley said, “this action is not about making the federal government more efficient, but rather about sowing chaos and targeting a group of patriotic Americans that President Trump openly calls crooked and dishonesty.”
