What the New Orders Mean for a New Order – “President Trump issued a wave of executive orders in his first day in office, too many to make sense of them all in one sitting. Here, I focus on the changes that relate to the organization and delivery of public services, and how they matter for public employees. Please note, my interpretation here is provisional, I am not a lawyer…

• Trump imposes a new hiring freeze on federal civilian employees. There are exceptions for essential positions, and the Director of OPM may grant exemptions. Departing positions cannot be backfilled, and contractors cannot be hired to fill gaps. The EO specifies it should not impact services for some agencies (Social Security, Medicare and Veteran’s Affairs). Quite how they ensure that is unclear, but the implication is that its fine to adversely impact the provision of other services.
• A new OPM memo also requires the creation of lists of federal employees still on their probationary period (usually 1 year) to be reported to OPM by January 24. This is because those officials do not have full civil service protections. The implication is that agencies will have to justify retaining those employees, or they will be fired. This is bad HR policy. The federal government has a bigger hiring than firing problem, and targeting the newest and youngest hires in an aging workforce is a terrible idea, unless the goal is simply to cut people. Which it is..
• For political appointees, there is no limit on hiring. Another new OPM memo removes the traditional cap on Schedule C appointees for 240 days. As a reminder, the US government has about 4,000 political appointee positions, about 1,300 of whom are Senate-confirmed. This change could see the number of non-Senate confirmed appointees increase significantly. It fits with the broader pattern of politicization…”