The Scoop
The Trump administration is requiring agencies across the US government to create hiring committees by Nov. 17 that would approve and fill open positions, according to a memo sent out Wednesday morning and reviewed by Semafor.
Sent by Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Scott Kupor, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, the memo expands upon an executive order on federal hiring that President Donald Trump signed last month. That order extended the federal hiring freeze Trump imposed after taking office and set requirements for hiring future federal civilian employees, including the formation of “strategic hiring committees” led by political appointees.
Those committees would sign off on hires and provide OPM and OMB with an “annual staffing plan.” Wednesday’s memo states that committees should have between five and nine members, with career federal employees permitted to join but political appointees comprising the majority of the membership.
“The Strategic Hiring Committee must approve the creation of filling, as applicable, of each vacancy within the agency,” the memo states. “The Strategic Hiring Committee must ensure that agency hiring is consistent with the national interest, agency needs, and administration priorities, as well as the Merit Hiring Plan and the agency’s Annual Staffing Plan.”
The memo directs agencies to provide OPM with “written notice” of approved hires and to develop their yearly staffing plans “at the start of each fiscal year in coordination” with OPM and OMB. Next year’s plans are required by Dec. 1, according to the memo.
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The new policies are applicable to all agencies, according to the memo, though positions relating to national security and immigration enforcement, as well as military personnel and the executive office, are exempt. Those categories of position were also exempt from the hiring freeze extended last month.
Wednesday’s memo continues the administration’s efforts to drastically reshape the US government, with stronger oversight over agency hiring. At the beginning of Trump’s second term, many agencies cut jobs as the president empowered his Department of Government Efficiency to slash the size and cost of government.
The Trump administration has also sought to ensure employees are on board with the president’s agenda — something that ended up being a thorn in his side throughout his first term. Trump has made several notable firings in the first year of his second term, and some of those firings have stemmed from disloyalty concerns.
Notable
- The New York Times reported that Trump’s committees give his appointees greater power over who can work for the US government, since they typically include the “deputy agency head and chief of staff to the agency head.”
- Vought directed agencies to implement further reductions in force during the government shutdown, Politico reported.