President Trump ordered executive departments and agencies to freeze the hiring of federal civilian employees and contractors. This freeze, which will be in effect until the White House’s Office of Management and Budget can develop a plan to shrink the federal workforce through attrition, is part of the opening salvo of Trump’s full-scale assault on our government’s ability to protect public health and the environment. The hiring freeze—and the workforce reductions to follow—will make it more difficult for agencies to carry out their missions. A federal union leader warned that Trump’s move “adds to the already low morale” among federal employees and expressed concerns about whether agencies will be able “to protect the public in the longer term."
