President Trump signs executive order to freeze federal hiring
President Trump signed an executive order that put a freeze on federal hiring, specifically those working with the “military, public safety, and public health.”
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that put a freeze on federal hiring, except for national security employees, specifically those working with the “military, public safety, and public health.”
The order was part of what is being called Trump’s “Contract with the American Voter” and was the second of six measures that the administration says will “clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, D.C.” as part of his “100-day action plan to Make America Great Again.”
Although the previous administration accelerated hiring in an attempt to get employees settled in before Trump’s administration began, some employees who were hired but have not yet started work may be affected by the freeze as well.
The move was almost immediately criticized by the largest union for federal employees.
“President Trump’s action will disrupt government programs and services that benefit everyone and actually increase taxpayer costs by forcing agencies to hire more expensive contractors to do work that civilian government employees are already doing for far less,” said American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox Sr.
“This hiring freeze will mean longer lines at Social Security offices, fewer workplace safety inspections, less oversight of environmental polluters, and greater risk to our nation’s food supply and clean water systems.”
Trump also signed executive orders to withdraw from the negotiating process of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and reinstating the Mexico City abortion rules, which prohibits giving U.S. funding to nongovernmental organizations that offer family planning and reproductive health options if they include abortion.
