Trump’s day 1 executive actions include federal hiring freeze, return-to-office directive

President Donald Trump issued a slew of executive actions on his first day in office, both reviving familiar efforts from his first term and reversing a number of policies from the Biden administration.

In total, Trump signed more than two dozen executive orders Monday evening, including one that orders a federal hiring freeze at agencies.

“The President will usher a golden age for America by reforming and improving the government bureaucracy to work for the American people,” White House officials wrote in a summary of presidential actions Monday. “He will freeze bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas to end the onslaught of useless and overpaid [diversity, equity and inclusion] activists buried into the federal workforce.”

As of noon on Inauguration Day, the order directs agencies not to fill any vacant federal positions or create any new roles. The executive order clarifies, though, that military personnel, as well as employees in immigration enforcement, national security or public safety positions are exempt from the hiring freeze. The Office of Personnel Management also has the authority to grant further hiring exemptions as necessary. The EO prohibits agencies from hiring more contractors in response to the order. 

Trump also directed OPM and the Office of Management and Budget to work with the Department of Government Efficiency, a nongovernmental advisory panel, to submit a plan for reducing the size of the federal workforce “through efficiency improvements and attrition.” Once the agencies and DOGE submit their proposal, the hiring freeze will lift — except for at the IRS, which the order said will remain under a hiring freeze until it’s determined that “it is in the national interest to lift the freeze.”

The hiring freeze has implications for federal employees working across the country, as more than 80% of the federal workforce operates outside the Washington, D.C., area. Currently, the federal government employs about 2.2 million career civil servants. Between 2019 and 2023, the federal workforce grew by over 140,000 employees, according to data analysis from the Partnership for Public Service.

Federal unions, organizations and some lawmakers have argued that a federal hiring freeze would prevent agencies from delivering mission critical services to the public. They have said budget limitations already negatively impact the federal workforce and agencies’ ability to carry out their work.

Source(s): Federal News Network, received on January 21, 2025.