President Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday that directed federal agencies to restrict hiring across the government, though with exceptions for political appointees, positions related to immigration enforcement, national security and public safety and other positions cleared by the Office of Personnel Management.
The executive order came as Mr. Trump’s hiring freeze, in place since Jan. 20, expired. The terms of the new order indicate that the agencies will be hiring only with the approval of his political appointees.
The president directed the agencies to create “strategic hiring committees” that will sign off on positions that can be created or filled and vet candidates to make sure that “hiring is consistent with the national interest, agency needs, and the priorities of my administration.” Those committees, the order says, are to be led by the “deputy agency head and the chief of staff to the agency head,” both political appointees.
The Trump administration introduced the concept of hiring committees earlier this year and changed the job application process to include answering questions about some of Mr. Trump’s policies, which experts saw as part of a blueprint for politicizing the bureaucracy.
But Wednesday’s memo provides more details for how those committees are to operate, notably that senior political appointees will be making the decisions about who works for the federal government, according to Don Kettl, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland who studies the civil service. In the past, career officials lower in the agency made these decisions, he said.
“That is a significant increase in political control over hiring,” Mr. Kettl said. “It restricts hiring more tightly than ever before, with upper-level approval for every position and the potential of a partisan screen for every employee.”
Mr. Trump had extended his initial hiring freeze twice since putting it in place on his return to office. The new order indicates that most hiring will continue to be stalled.
“No federal civilian position that is vacant may be filled, and no new position may be created, except as provided for in this order or required by applicable law,” the memo says.
Tim Kaufman, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal labor union, said: “It looks like the order says that while there’s a hiring freeze for regular competitive service positions, political appointees at each agency can hire people who are ideologically in line with Donald Trump’s political agenda.”
The White House did not respond to questions about the new hiring rules.
Employees across the government have described great strain in completing their tasks as a result of the hiring freezes that have left key positions vacant. Many vacancies predate the Trump administration, and federal agencies had planned to fill them this year.
Eileen Sullivan is a Times reporter covering the changes to the federal work force under the Trump administration.
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