Under Trump’s executive order, agencies won’t be able to fill most vacancies for 90 days, though military, national security and immigration enforcement roles are exempted. The freeze won’t be lifted at the government’s tax-collecting agency until the Treasury secretary and White House officials agree it’s “in the national interest” to do so. An immediate hiring freeze is a flashy way to signal that you’re serious about cutting the size of the federal government, which Trump claims to want to do. AdvertisementOne of the biggest problems, the GAO found, was that government-wide hiring freezes are “arbitrary” and “not based on sound analyses” of the workforce. Matt Rourke via Associated PressAdvertisementThe GAO’s estimation of hiring freezes hadn’t changed much by the time of Trump’s first presidency.

Source: Huffington Post January 21, 2025 19:07 UTC