By: Stephanie Kalota
Founder, Veteran Legislative Voice & AHG Correspondent
After President Trump was sworn into office, he signed a series of executive orders. Two of them, Hiring Freeze and Return to In-Person Work, have made deep ripples throughout the federal government. The Hiring Freeze Executive Order paused all movement on hiring for federal civilian positions at the time it was signed. This meant that if the position was vacant, and not yet filled, even if someone received and accepted the job offer, that job offer would be canceled. Often potential hires would have already done their interviews, tests, and background checks.
This executive order states that “within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Director of OPM and the Administrator of the United States DOGE Service (USDS), shall submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.” At the time of its release, it affected the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Since then, the VA has been made exempt from the hiring freeze, but the damage may have already been done since the offer cancelations have already been sent out. And nearly a week later, the whole of the Department of Defense was made exempt as well. But this does not explicitly mean that the DOD or the VA are exempt from the reduction in size of the Federal Government’s workforce. So, it is important to stay tuned to this part of the executive order.
Now the DOD and the VA are not exempt from the other executive order, the Return to In-Person Work order. This very short order simply states: “Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary. This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law.”
This order could cause a rash of voluntary terminations, which is probably what the current administration wants since there have been reports of “buyouts” or severance payments if federal employees would voluntarily quit their jobs.
A report from the US Office of Personnel Management states that “in fiscal year 2023, 43% of civilian federal workers engaged in telework on a “routine or situational” basis.” But the order does not specifically state that it applies to the federal civilian workers who operate remotely full-time, who have the remote work part of their contract. This can cause abrupt resignations or fires if orders are not followed. This causes gaps in quality of work and then affects the military and veterans in their work.
